Nedbank launches low bandwidth DigiSkills training platform in partnership with Microsoft

Nedbank launches low bandwidth DigiSkills training platform in partnership with Microsoft

Nedbank is introducing the Nedbank DigiSkills online platform. A low bandwidth digital skills training program in partnership with Microsoft and Afrika Tikkun. To help South Africans acquire the in-demand skills needed in a more digital post-COVID-19 economy. It plans to upskill and create sustainable income opportunities for one thousand South Africans by the end of 2021. With plans to scale this number to five thousand in the longer term.

The platform offers five free online courses and learning tracks that lead to roles in software development, data analysis, IT administration, customer service specialist and project management. Participants will undergo an evaluation process after the completion of a learning path. Those who qualify proceed to complete a Microsoft Certification exam.

South Africans over the age of 18, who can read and write English are eligible to participate in the Nedbank DigiSkills training.

Participating in the skills program is easy and here are the steps. First, visit the platform https://www.digiskills.careers and sign up. Enter your mobile number to start the registration process. You will receive an SMS to verify and confirm your mobile number. Then enter your details to complete your profile. Finally, you’ll then have access to the course library. Choose a course and start learning.

Nedbank says exam writing is available at its facilities in major cities across South Africa.

Microsoft South Africa’s partnership with Nedbank is part of Microsoft’s global skills initiative to help people most affected by the pandemic gain in-demand skills to be employable. By offering free online courses across Microsoft, LinkedIn, and GitHub learning platforms. So far over 30 million people across the globe have participated in the program and over a million across Africa. Microsoft is partnering with organizations and governments in Africa to bring this to more people. Offering additional funding and services to make this possible where this is necessary.

[jetpack_subscription_form subscribe_placeholder=”Enter your email address” show_subscribers_total=”false” button_on_newline=”false” submit_button_text=”Hi,
sign up so you can get the latest
in breaking news, reviews,
opinions, events,
opportunities and
community updates right
in your inbox. ” custom_font_size=”16px” custom_border_radius=”0″ custom_border_weight=”1″ custom_padding=”15″ custom_spacing=”10″ submit_button_classes=”” email_field_classes=”” show_only_email_and_button=”true”]

Check out other stories making the news in the technology ecosystem in Africa and the Middle East.

Microsoft South Africa announces 2021 partner award winners

Microsoft South Africa announces 2021 partner award winners

South Africa partner award winners Microsoft

Microsoft celebrates its excelling local partners in South Africa at its annual partner award event. The award event is set aside each year to recognize the contributions of the Microsoft partner community. The community that enables and empowers Microsoft customers and organizations in South Africa to do more. The event wasn’t short of the usual partner excitement even though it took place virtually this year.

Microsoft South Africa awarded partners in 18 categories. Among the many winners on the night, Gijima Holdings (Pty) Ltd took home the 2021 Managing Director Partner of the Year award. Mint Group won awards in three categories, the most by any Microsoft partner. Mint also got the most partner nominations in six categories. Followed by BUI with awards in two categories and four nominations.

2021 Microsoft South Africa partner of the year award winner Tarsus on Demand also won the CSP Indirect Provider of the Year at the local event.

Here below is a full list of award winners at 2021 Microsoft South Africa partner awards winner.

2021 Microsoft South Africa partner Award Winners list

Microsoft Modern Work Partner of the Year – Mint Group

Azure Infrastructure Partner of the Year – BUI

Data and Analytics Partner of the Year – Altron Karabina

Artificial Intelligence Partner of the Year – Praelexis

Security Partner of the Year – BUI

Business Applications Power Platform Partner of the Year – Mint Group

Dynamics Customer Engagement Partner of the Year – Enterprisecloud

Application Development Partner of the Year – Tangent IT Solutions

Dynamics 365 Business Central Partner of the Year – Just Dynamics Software Solutions (Pty) LTD

CSP Indirect Provider of the Year – Tarsus on Demand

Dynamics Finance & Operations Partner of the Year – Parity Software (Pty) Ltd

Commercial Channel Partner of the Year – NTT Dimension Data

Microsoft Consulting Services Partner of the Year – Mint Group

Industry Solution – Public Sector Partner of the Year – Boxfusion

Industry Solution – FSI Partner of the Year – InQuba

New or Emerging Services Partner of the Year – InfoVerge Solutions (Pty) Ltd

New or Emerging ISV Partner of the Year – iiDENTIFii

Managing Director’s Partner of The Year – Gijima Holdings (Pty) Ltd

[jetpack_subscription_form subscribe_placeholder=”Enter your email address” show_subscribers_total=”false” button_on_newline=”false” submit_button_text=”Hi,
sign up so you can get the latest
in breaking news, reviews,
opinions, events,
opportunities and
community updates right
in your inbox. ” custom_font_size=”16px” custom_border_radius=”0″ custom_border_weight=”1″ custom_padding=”15″ custom_spacing=”10″ submit_button_classes=”” email_field_classes=”” show_only_email_and_button=”true”]

Check out other stories making the news in the technology ecosystem in Africa and the Middle East.

Digital SA Nation and Microsoft announce new digital space

Digital SA Nation and Microsoft announce new digital space

Digital SA Nation (SAtion) Microsoft South Africa

Digital SA Nation (SAtion), is collaborating with Microsoft South Africa to create digitally skilled South Africans. By introducing a Digital Skills Hub that will promote digital literacy, skills transfer and upskilling, and close the digital divide. The partnership between the two organizations hopes to aid in the socio-economic transformation of South Africa.

For Microsoft, the partnership with Digital SA Nation will provide opportunities that enable citizens to effectively operate in the digital space. Letting the South African youth unlock their career with skills that will improve their chances of securing a job.

The digital economy creates the ideal opportunity for job creation,” says Lillian Barnard, General Manager, Microsoft South Africa. It also spurs innovation, boosts economic growth and supports long-term competitiveness“, she adds.

The SAtion Digital Skills Hub will host three initiatives; the Global Skills Initiative, Mahala, and Microsoft Cloud Society. Each initiative will offer different opportunities for all South Africans to acquire digital skills. This includes the youth, unemployed, small, medium and micro enterprises, and government officials.

With the Mahala initiative, South Africans aged 8 to 24 can sign up for the full Microsoft Office 365 free of charge. Through this portal, you will be able to activate Microsoft licenses for the Microsoft Office 365 suite and 5TB OneDrive cloud-based storage.

If you are interested in cloud computing and looking to learn and grow, the Microsoft Cloud Society initiative helps you identify and engage with passionate and influential cloud computing focused experts from the industry. You also get free online training and free or subsidized vouchers to take certification exams.

Through the Global Skills Initiative unemployed or economically disadvantaged South Africans can acquire skills and certification for in-demand jobs. These include roles such as software engineer, data analyst, customer service specialist and more.

[jetpack_subscription_form subscribe_placeholder=”Enter your email address” show_subscribers_total=”false” button_on_newline=”false” submit_button_text=”Hi,
sign up so you can get the latest
in breaking news, reviews,
opinions, events,
opportunities and
community updates right
in your inbox. ” custom_font_size=”16px” custom_border_radius=”0″ custom_border_weight=”1″ custom_padding=”15″ custom_spacing=”10″ submit_button_classes=”” email_field_classes=”” show_only_email_and_button=”true”]

Check out other stories making the news in the technology ecosystem in Africa and the Middle East.

Standard Bank partners with Microsoft to establish the African Digital Foundry

Standard Bank partners with Microsoft to establish the African Digital Foundry

Standard Bank and Microsoft announce a strategic partnership to accelerate the digital transformation of Africa’s largest financial institution and further drive the continent’s growth. The Bank’s growing investment in the Microsoft Cloud will enable the innovation, efficiencies, and resilience required to respond to market dynamics and customer needs.

This partnership builds on the 30-year relationship between the two companies and involves migrating workloads, applications, and platforms to Microsoft Azure to drive organisational efficiencies, as well as workforce collaboration with Azure, PowerApps, Workplace Analytics and Microsoft Teams.

“Investing in the cloud will allow Standard Bank to achieve its strategy to transform from a traditional financial services company into a digital platform company, providing financial services, plus ancillary and associated services. We have adopted a cloud-first strategy, underpinned by end-to-end security and data-driven insights that will enable transformation with tangible results,” says Standard Bank Group Chief Executive, Sim Tshabalala.

“Standard Bank’s cloud-first strategy underlines the growing momentum in financial services to deliver differentiated experiences that today’s customers expect,” said Judson Althoff, Microsoft’s executive vice president of Worldwide Commercial Business. “As a long-standing technology partner, we are pleased to collaborate with Standard Bank in realizing this strategy and in becoming Africa’s future-first financial services firm through digital skilling-focused initiatives that will expand economic opportunity for young people across Africa.”

As part of the partnership, the companies will also:

  • Establish the African Digital Foundry (The Foundry), a strategic alliance, for Standard Bank and Microsoft to collaborate to co-create unique solutions through new technology to meet the financial needs of Africa’s consumers. Through the Foundry, the companies aspire to reach 100 million customers in Africa over the next five years.
  • Bring together their resources and know-how to provide youth with the relevant digital skills needed to secure future-ready jobs and equip Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with digital skills and capabilities so that they can take advantage of the growing shift to digital technologies.

The African Digital Foundry (The Foundry)

Standard Bank and Microsoft, through the Foundry, will co-create and execute joint go-to-market digital services related to trade, payment, and risk-based (lending and insurance) solutions.  They will also develop ecosystems enabling digital trading to facilitate Africa’s growth.

“The Foundry is a digital initiative established in Africa, for Africans, to address the unique challenges the continent faces with customised innovations, services and solutions,” says Tshabalala. “The partnership will further enhance and create ongoing collaboration between our firms around co-engineering solutions for African consumers’ unique needs.”

Skills and Small Medium Enterprise (SME) Development

Harnessing the power and reach of both organisations, the partnership will also drive digital skills development, boost youth employment, and accelerate the growth of SMEs on the African continent.

Both organisations believe that digital transformation represents an opportunity for the continent to leap ahead, taking a leading role in enabling economic and societal growth in Africa.

Microsoft and Standard Bank will leverage their combined research, industry, partner and start-up programmes to impact the continent – where similar opportunities and challenges exist – using technology such as mixed reality and artificial intelligence.

“Continuing to build on the partnership is part of the ongoing journey that Standard Bank and Microsoft are on to invest in digital transformation as the enabler of meaningful and tangible innovation. Our journey is underpinned by collaborative efforts to develop, scale and roll-out digital solutions that will deliver personalised services to 100 million Africans and by meeting their unique and evolving needs and demands,” says Tshabalala.

[jetpack_subscription_form subscribe_placeholder=”Enter your email address” show_subscribers_total=”false” button_on_newline=”false” submit_button_text=”Hi,
sign up so you can get the latest
in breaking news, reviews,
opinions, events,
opportunities and
community updates right
in your inbox. ” custom_font_size=”16px” custom_border_radius=”0″ custom_border_weight=”1″ custom_padding=”15″ custom_spacing=”10″ submit_button_classes=”” email_field_classes=”” show_only_email_and_button=”true”]

Check out other stories making the news in the technology ecosystem in Africa and the Middle East.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies opens first Innovation and Digital Skills Centre in Mthatha, South Africa

Liquid Intelligent Technologies opens first Innovation and Digital Skills Centre in Mthatha, South Africa

Digital Skills Centre innovation South Africa

As part of their commitment to fostering innovation and building digital skills even in the remotest part of the country, Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa, today heralded in a new digital dawn in the Eastern Cape with the opening of the first Innovation and Digital Skills Centre (IDSC) in Mthatha.

Through this initiative, communities close to the Digital Skills Centre will be exposed to local learning and business opportunities. The IDSC will serve as a technology hub where learners and entrepreneurs can equip themselves with the latest and most relevant digital skills. The IDSC is equipped with state-of-the-art classroom learning facilities with high-speed connectivity, helping positively impact the education system in the city.

As part of the learnerships, the courses on offer will include:

  1. Microsoft Office Fundamentals: In this training course, learners will learn basic Word, Excel, and Outlook skills.
  2. Introduction to Design Thinking: This course will introduce learners to the Design Thinking process and illustrate best practices for each step along the way.
  3. Introduction to C#: This is part of a three-part course where learners will be taken through the fundamentals, object-oriented programming concepts and instruction on data structures and algorithms

According to Deon Geyser, Chief Executive Officer Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa, “As we stand at the cusp of the 4IR, digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, Big Data, Robotics, 3D technologies and many more have become the means and solutions to many of the world’s problems. We believe that empowering the youth with the necessary technological skills will prepare them to thrive in today’s digital age and become part of the digital revolution. The opening of the centre is a realisation of our commitment to future-ready local communities, upskilling the youth and accelerating digital adoption among entrepreneurs based in the Eastern Cape.”

Empowering South African youth and communities has always been at the core of Liquid SA. The organisation has implemented leadership programmes for 93 students in the Eastern Cape covering ICT while also awarding 20 bursaries to students through the Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu Universities for the 2020 Academic year.

Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Ms Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams says, “A key aspect of economic development and growth is the ability to enhance competitiveness through skills and competencies that are on par with international markets. The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies pro-actively developed the National Digital and Future Skills strategy to keep pace with the advancement of technology.”

Commenting on the opening of the centre, Honourable Premier: Eastern Cape Provincial Government, Mr L. O. Mabuyane said, “It is indeed heartening to see social partners, across the spectrum, including business, heed the call by government, to join in the pact towards a better life for all – of our people. The mastery of the set of skills that, in particular, an evolving curriculum and a refocused education outcomes agenda –  towards a workforce that will be ready for the 4th Industrial Revolution, will place all of us and the future of generations to come on the right footing towards exponential growth and development in our province. Through innovation and digital technologies, we have the potential to tap into the full potential of the Eastern Cape and her peoples”.

To date, 140 underprivileged students benefitted from bursaries to leading tertiary institutions; 811 learnerships and internships have been implemented in various courses for learners, including those with disabilities. 50 unemployed youth were trained on Introduction to Programming, 630 mainstream schools and 20 learners with disabilities benefitted from ICT equipment and expos, while 389 learners went through The Virtual Mathematician maths and science schools in the Eastern Cape.

[jetpack_subscription_form subscribe_placeholder=”Enter your email address” show_subscribers_total=”false” button_on_newline=”false” submit_button_text=”Hi,
sign up so you can get the latest
in breaking news, reviews,
opinions, events,
opportunities and
community updates right
in your inbox. ” custom_font_size=”16px” custom_border_radius=”0″ custom_border_weight=”1″ custom_padding=”15″ custom_spacing=”10″ submit_button_classes=”” email_field_classes=”” show_only_email_and_button=”true”]

Check out other stories making the news in the technology ecosystem in Africa and the Middle East.