Ubunye, a municipal IT skills development programme, has seen 26 students graduate from its Student to Government (S2G) Project.
This is according to Microsoft, which runs the programme in partnership with the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the South African Local Government Association, the Local Government Seta, and the SA Post Office.
The group was the first to complete the S2G programme and comprised 18 students from the Free State, six from the Eastern Cape and two from the Western Cape. Students from the Free State started the programme in June last year, while those in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape started in October.
The company says the project, which started in 2010, aims to equip unemployed graduates with IT skills in order to increase the use of IT at local government level, while also addressing SA's service delivery backlog.
Students are selected for the programme by participating municipalities and must meet certain criteria: they must be South African citizens, be unemployed, posses a degree in any business-, engineering- or IT-related field, or have matriculated with Mathematics and English, and also have a two-year diploma in any field.
“One key finding from these studies is the need for better IT systems and for the effective use of such systems. The S2G Project is designed to address skills deficits and to enable local municipalities to improve their systems, improve their use of IT, and to employ and retain qualified IT specialists,” says Mteto Nyati, MD of Microsoft SA.
In addition to the S2G Project, the programme offers training to senior municipal managers, through a provincial seminar series. According to Microsoft, the seminar series enables these managers to use technology to address the challenges faced by municipalities.
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