There are a number of tech incubators and accelerators in South Africa all trying to meet one objective: to give fledgling tech innovation start-ups the support they need to thrive. However South Africa has a severe technical skills gap that does not help in supporting African technology innovations. One of the gaps with incubators and accelerators is the focus on content and workshops and not giving entrepreneurs access to key human resources and skills that are part of their team that they otherwise would not be able to afford at this stage. Content and mentorship are just not enough.
One of the reasons that Technology Entrepreneurs fail is because of a lack of the right resources. "One of the key resources is a good and affordable tech partner to build functionality as these enterprises are centred around a technological solution. We've seen this time and time again where a start-up entrepreneur has a great idea but doesn't have the funds to complete their MVP or go to a perceived 'cheap' outsource vendor that leads to expensive rework costs later on," says Tania van Wyk de Vries.
"Tech start-ups do not just need mentors or coaches, they need access to people that become part of their team to support and implement for them till they have the money to recruit their own staff. The two main gaps we have seen within tech start-ups are sales and technology skills," says Van Wyk de Vries.
The question we had to answer was: How do we get affordable yet capable skills for entrepreneurs? The answer was The Digital Geekaship. The Digital Geekaship is an eight- to 12-month technology finishing school. "We found that even though a graduate candidate has a three-year degree there are still gaps in their ability and are therefore not at a point where they can add real value to a team for at least three to six months," says CEO Van Wyk de Vries.
The Digital Geekaship ramps up the skills of IT graduates to an internationally acceptable level in a short space of time and offers those skills to entrepreneurs at an affordable cost. Some developers were able to take their Java programming acumen from a zero base to competent in the space of a month while working in the Digital Geekaship by just being given the space to nurture their skills under the right mentorship and approach from more senior team members.
The Digital Geekaship has partnered with the Standard Bank Incubator for Women in Tech Accelerator starting June 2017. The aim of this accelerator is to equip existing female tech businesses or tech start-ups with the resources to launch a successful business or turnaround an existing business in three months.
The Digital Geekaship, "Geeks" get an opportunity to work on end to end commercial projects and thus increasing their skills and earning potential in the market. This means that start-up incubators or accelerators have both mentorship and key tech skills to fully support entrepreneurs being incubated in the program while also directly participating in closing the skills gap in South Africa through their partnership with the Digital Geekaship.
Share