South Africa: WIOCC Group Partners With MDCS Skills Academy to Equip Underprivileged Learners With ICT Skills

Through a partnership with MDCS Skills Academy, WIOCC Group, an open-access digital infrastructure company, is assisting poor learners—particularly female jobless unemployment and disabled learners in impoverished areas of South Africa—in gaining important ICT skills that will help increase their employability.

This vital alliance aims to reach the most underprivileged by setting up a mobile ICT lab with 20 laptops, especially in rural primary and secondary schools. Additionally, it allows several schools to use the ICT resources and equipment, allowing more students in need to acquire these fundamental skills and avoiding the same crime problems that would arise from ICT laboratories that are permanently located in the neighborhood.

James Wekesa, Group Chief Commercial Officer at WIOCC Group, states: “We are providing underprivileged learners in the Potchefstroom area of North West Province and in Rietfontein, Gauteng, with valuable access to ICT facilities and training through the support of our South Africa office to MDCS Skills Academy.” In addition to improving their ICT proficiency and preparing them for a career in the field, this gives impoverished students who do not currently have access to computers.

“The objective is for learners to improve their results in school through the use of ICT resources,” said Winnie Karisa, HR Director at WIOCC Group. In the end, these students will have greater access to employment prospects thanks to both their higher grades and enhanced computer abilities.

Two-year bursary programme

Additionally, there is an authorized two-year bursary program with a concentration on management and ICT that has shown promising outcomes thus far.

“Three-quarters of those who have attended the program have achieved success in some form,” says Karisa. “They have either been sponsored for further training, received additional study opportunities, or have obtained full-time employment.”

“Our learnership and bursary programs are focused on assisting the underprivileged and disabled communities in the economically difficult parts of these provinces, and they are in line with the important and scarce talents required by the government.”