Pretoria, 28 Jul 2016
Sizwe IT Group sponsors Step Up 2 A Start Up III - one of South Africa's most widely supported and revered educational initiatives to empower youth with entrepreneurial and business skills.
Organised by Primestars Marketing, Step Up 2 A Start Up is a nationwide ingenuity, designed to ignite entrepreneurial passion, promote forward thinking and develop business skills and talents of underprivileged communities.
The first Step Up 2 A Start Up came into being in July 2014, followed by the second in July 2015. The initiative encourages high-school learners in grade 10, 11 and 12 to become environmental and social entrepreneurs, and helps them start their own businesses with multi-media educational tools that enhance their experiences and ensure success.
This third year's initiative was launched on Wednesday 27 July 2016 during an evening ceremony at Crown Reef Convention Centre at Gold Reef City.
Sizwe IT Group has a strong focus on education, pursued through various initiatives and thus continuously seeks key strategic initiatives aligned to its vision of bridging the digital divide.
Sponsoring the Step Up 2 A Start Up III initiative is perfectly in sync with Sizwe's entrepreneurial culture of encouraging youth to start their own businesses, and addressing key points such as industrialisation, skills development, and combatting South Africa's unemployment rate.
Reverend Dr Vukile Mehana, Chairman of Sizwe IT Group says: "We are greatly honoured to be one of the sponsors and excited to assist Primestars Marketing extend their reach to learners in remote areas through ICT."
The current pace of change constantly brings about new technologies with a significant effect on the way people live, work, and play worldwide. This however, causes a huge gap between what is currently available in local communities and what actually is possible with technological intervention.
Emerging technologies also challenge the traditional processes of teaching and learning and the way education is managed, thus having a major impact across all curriculum areas. Technology provides broader access to a wider variety of education with authentic and up-to-date information, whilst also promoting social collaboration among students.
Dr Mehana says: "Increased access to IT in the home and in educational establishments could mean that learning becomes available to anyone, everywhere, and instantly, especially in areas where there are currently no access to brick and mortar educational facilities."
However, the challenge with any broad-based education intervention is finding an effective vehicle that can deliver quality services to a larger number of beneficiaries.
"Initiatives like the Step Up 2 A Start Up, are designed to address exactly this challenge and help young South Africans to participate more meaningfully in the economy, thereby building a more sustainable environment in which there will be more job creators instead of job seekers," Dr Mehana adds.
Sizwe IT Group is one of South Africa's leading integrated ICT solutions providers, and since its inception in 2001, unceasingly offer complete peace-of-mind, tailor-made ICT solutions to a host of clients in various sectors, deploying effective, resilient and reliable solutions to even the most demanding challenges.
"Information Technology is one of the most important aspects that influence how people will do business in future, and how economies will be able to grow far beyond local markets," says Dr Mehana.
"Backed by our entrepreneurial culture, expert technical knowledge, and focus on innovation, we believe we can help make a significant difference in advancing businesses."
Sizwe's holistic CSI approach in communities have already improved some learning environments; it equipped various schools with state of the art technologies such as computers, printers, a secure network infrastructure, software and the respective technical know-how to connect systems to eLearning Portals for teaching and learning activities.
Sizwe provides a spectrum of ICT services and solutions, from physical infrastructure, metro and long distance optic fibre, facility management, continuous energy supply, networking and security, to hosting, storage, server processing, mobility, data centre, end-user computing and associated consumables.
Dr Mehana concludes: "We believe this initiative will go a long way in cultivating the culture of entrepreneurship, thus ensuring the continuous development and empowerment of the youth."
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