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APPSolve: Paving the way for the new generation


Johannesburg, 18 Sep 2017

"A leader's job is not to do the work for others, it's to help others figure out how to do it themselves, to get things done, and to succeed beyond what they thought possible", says leadership expert Simon Sinek.

In 2015, APPSolve tested the internship waters and hired its first junior Oracle resource. Maureen Grosvenor, APPSolve Director and Chief Strategy Officer, explains: "With very little experience but the right attitude, this intern has gone on to achieving multiple Oracle certifications and has a number of successful Oracle EBS and Fusion projects under his belt. This was a resounding success and we decided to pursue this further in 2017".

APPSolve decided to become part of the Oracle Partner Campus Programme. The intention behind the Oracle Partner Campus Learnership Programme is to build Oracle Skills within South Africa from an Entry Level Perspective that will allow for a Future Skills Pipeline for Oracle and its Partner Community. This Programme is an investment for both Oracle and the partner community and is intended to address the skills shortage within South Africa as well as create sustainable employment for young South Africans. The target is to implement an all-inclusive programme of 65 Learners for 2017.

Grosvenor continues: "APPSolve took on two learners this year. We were specifically looking at the development stream and placed them at strategic customers. We have senior resources working on projects here and, together with the customer, could mentor the leaners as they received on-the-job training in both technical and business areas".

Andre Pelser, the director who implemented this initiative within APPSolve explains: "The current SA employments sector is in desperate need of highly skilled, experienced IT resources. These skills are in high demand and they are normally utilised above their delivery capacity. This makes it extremely difficult to get the best resources to share their knowledge using traditional in classroom training models. With a learnership model you provide a mechanism for a junior to form part of actual projects with access to a senior mentor that can guide them. Even though initial delivery slows down, the investment pays off in the long term."

Pelser continues: "Realising a critical ingredient in this journey was accessing real world experience and not to try and simulate anything. We contacted strategic customers and were fortunate they agreed to form part of this initiative. We all share the same end goal, to create sought after skilled resources that will be in a position to pick their employer instead of inexperienced resources with only academic qualifications that needs to take any opportunity that comes their way. After a few months into this process, it is clear using learnerships not only has the potential, but already has demonstrated this will contribute in a meaningful way to the lives of our youth, which after all is our shared future."

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