The State Information Technology Agency (SITA), in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), e-Media and Comskills are sponsoring the training of 30 young people with various disabilities in ICT and soft skills.
"This project is an extension of the Youth Internship Programme (YIP), to train additional ICT skills for incorporation into various learnership programmes and ultimate placement at government departments to alleviate the skills shortages," says Moira Blom of SITA's training department.
According to Blom, the programme commenced on 23 April 2003 and will run until 31 August 2004, with 30 interns. "The candidates were selected by a panel of stakeholder representatives and were required to have a matriculation certificate, preferably with Maths and Science as subjects."
Their programme started off with training in confidence building in order to overcome their physical disabilities, she says. Thereafter SITA provided a bridging course in life skills, computer literacy and an introduction to programming concepts.
"The bulk of their training will be spent as Interns at e-Media, training to become multimedia programmers," says Blom.
Twenty of the students will also be trained as software developers, while 10 will be taking up positions as call centre agents for the National Council for the Blind. The students' disabilities vary from visual impairment to post-polio paralysis, deafness, scoliosis, brain damage, dyslexia, quadriplegia, paraplegia, stroke and speech impediment.
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