Government has devised a plan to tackle the high rate of youth unemployment, by providing a staggering number of young people with the opportunity to become software developers.
The plan is to train one million people across Africa to become software developers over the next five years through a scholarship with the Power Learn Project (PLP).
Software engineering is among the most in-demand career choices in South Africa, but also all over the world. The ability to code and create software is a beneficial skill as the world continues to make technological advances.
The #1MillionDevs4Africa Program, the leading program of PLP, has been launched, first in Kenya and now in South Africa, to train one milllion software developers across the continent by 2027.
As per President Cyril Ramaphosa’s commitment to a “skills revolution” in South Africa, wherein he announced that subjects such as coding and data analytics would be introduced at primary school level to prepare for future jobs, partnering with the Power Learn Project is one the steps to achieve that.
How PLP plans to reach its goal of training one million people in software engineering, is through a "very robust curriculum that's focused on training software programming languages," says Mumbi Ndung’u, Chief Growth and Operations Manager of PLP.
PLP, in partnership with Startup Business Campus (one of South Africa’s leading entrepreneurial investment hubs), are on the lookout for those one million people to provide youth employment, support the local and global tech industry, and solve local challenges as well.
Ndung’u says PLP is "not even scratching the surface" by finding one million people to train, due to the current need in the software jobs market.
"We need more than one million software engineers so it's something that's very ambitious but very possible," she says.
The programme provides training that takes place over sixteen weeks, during which PLP will work in partnerships across different countries.
Lucky Litelu, Founder and CEO of Startup Business Campus says that the youth is our greatest asset, and therefore investing in them is necessary.
“Startup Business Campus is super excited to partner up with PLP on this exciting high-impact capacity-building initiative, that seeks to unlock Africa’s digital economy and create pathways to sustainable prosperity for young people on the continent,” says Litelu.
Launched in 2022 in Kenya, PLP is a Pan African impact organization with a vision of driving transformative change for the youth in Africa, by empowering them with relevant technology capacity through the provision of quality, affordable and decentralized tech training.
Skills development and technological capacity have been recognized as critical to developing solutions for unemployment and underemployment in South Africa, and Africa as a whole.
