Kasi App Lovers were voted the best team at the second annual Geekulcha VacWork programme held at the Empowerment Zone in Soweto recently.
According to Geekulcha, the Geekulcha VacWork programme is an annual vacation skills development programme which brings together 30 or more high school pupils to learn about IT, with a specific focus on mobile app development, Web development, entrepreneurship skills and electronics and design. It aims to encourage youth to venture into the ICT field to increase work opportunities within the industry.
The programme is an initiative of Geekulcha in partnership with the Innovation Hub and mLab Southern Africa.
At the end of the eight-week programme, the youngsters had to put what they learned into practice through a practical-based learning session where they were encouraged to develop various applications to address specific challenges they face in their communities.
The Kasi App Lovers, a group of four high school learners, developed an app to help matriculants enrol at tertiary education institutions. The app requests applicants' latest results, province of choice, affordability status, course etc. It then provides a list of possible universities /colleges they can register with, as well as information of bursary opportunities which are available.
"We are proud of the Soweto youngsters who took our challenge, to work towards building a digital township. I hope Kasi App Lovers will further develop their innovative idea for all students in the country to use. We thank our partners, Innovation Hub and mLab for the opportunities they've made available and we hope next year will see more opportunities opening up within the field of ICT for youth to explore," explains Tiyani Nghonyama, COO and CTO of Geekulcha.
The Kasi App Lovers, who are Tsholofelo Mazibuko (17), Bonga Zeus Mbucani (19), Karabo Motau (18), Neo Pekeche (17) and Pontso Pekeche (18,) walked away with sponsored gadgets and tech tools. The main prize is automatically qualifying for the 2017 edition of the Future GeekStars challenge.
The first runners up were Safe Society team, who created an offline device for the community members around Soweto to alert each other about crime incidents in the community. The second runners up were Zaitoff Graphics, a team that provided graphic design services to other teams during the programme.
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