GijimaAst has invested over R1 million in skills development for 15 learners in the ISETT SETA IT Business Learnership Programme (ITBLP).
The company says the ITBLP programme is aimed at delivering skilled black talent to the under-staffed IT sector, and plays a role in addressing the shortage of black IT skills in SA.
The programme is endorsed and jointly funded by ISETT SETA and is offered in collaboration with Tshwane University of Technology (TUT).
According to GijimaAst, five learners from the 2006 intake are completing their six-month practical training at GijimaAst, and another 10 learners have started the one-year theoretical training at TUT.
Phillip Pitse, skills and learning facilitator at GijimaAst, says the workplace experience is invaluable to the learners, because they "gain immediate practical experience to enhance their theoretical knowledge.
"GijimaAst has invested well over R1 million to develop the skills of the learners, as well as to provide accommodation during their studies and monthly allowances, and they have supplied each learner with a PC so that they can continue their studies in their free time," he says.
Pitse says students who successfully complete the programme are given permanent placements at GijimaAst.
"We are careful to ensure that any learners we take on are assured of gainful employment afterwards, as there is no point in taking on a learner only to put them back out on the street with skills but no job," he says.
GijimaAst says it also has a post-graduate internship and bursary programme, and 14 of last year's interns have also been placed in permanent positions at the company.
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