Students from the ICT Academy at the CIDA City Campus began their first two-week practical training today as part of their IT Technical Support Learnership.
A total of 117 students were sourced from the CIDA City campus at the beginning of the year to partake in the learnership, which runs concurrently with their Bachelor of Business Administration courses.
As part of the learnership, they will complete three practical training phases this year at one of the companies in the ICT Academy Consortium. The consortium includes T-Systems, DEG, OutLearning, Sun Microsystems, SAP, Cisco Systems and CompTIA. T-Systems will pay each of the students a monthly stipend.
Mardia van der Walt-Korsten, T-Systems GM of human resources, says the aim of the learnership is to equip students with skills for the workplace.
"In the first year of the learnership, the students are learning about applications fundamentals, computer hardware basics, operating systems and computer environments. Once they have completed all the modules and the practicals, they will receive a National Qualification Framework Level 4 certificate, which is the equivalent of a diploma," she says.
Students will then have the choice of continuing next year to specialise in Java, enterprise resource planning or networking.
Susheila Moodley, director of OutLearning, says the students are also being equipped with "soft" skills and versed in business etiquette.
"One has to remember that many of these students are coming from disadvantaged backgrounds where they have not had the chance to learn valuable relational skills that they will need in the workplace. They are therefore taught the importance of dressing well for work, how to conduct oneself in a meeting, how to communicate, compile a portfolio and so on."
Moodley says the students will stay with the same company for their three practicals.
"In all of the practicals, the students will be teamed up with mentors and will either be given work to do themselves or they will observe the mentors. Having done praticals at CIDA as part of their course work already, the students will be well equipped for the hands-on experience they will get in the workplace," she says.
The students will be constantly monitored and on-site support will be available to ensure the practicals are effective.
Oupa Mopaki, CEO of the Information Systems, Electronics and Telecommunications Technologies (ISETT) SETA, says he is excited about the skills the students are learning, and he encouraged them to complete their degrees.
"There has been a lot of negative talk about SETAs and skills development. However, ISETT SETA is on top of skills development and we hope this learnership programme will be the beginning in a change of perception when it comes to skills development."
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