Cape Town’s MindZu has made it into the finals of the Global Edtech Startup Awards. Over 3,000 companies from more than 80 countries entered the GESAwards competition, which provides an unmatched showcase for the most innovative companies from across the world.

Godfrey Parkin, co-founder of MindZu (www.mindzu.com), said, “Being selected for the finals is a huge endorsement for a company that has an ambitious mission. Through quality gamified maths education we improve the lives of millions in South Africa, and worldwide – irrespective of how dire or non-existent their school circumstances are.”

MindZu provides a full year of the highest quality maths education, via the learner’s own phone, for the price of a meal.

“The education system has failed the masses in South Africa and throughout the developing world,” says Parkin. “Most edtech operates within this failed system, so it too fails the masses.” MindZu is disrupting education by going direct to learners.

The company’s focus is on maths, particularly the final years of high school. To MindZu, learning maths is more than just being able to regurgitate Pythagoras or pass exams. “The early teenage brain is evolving faster than at any time other than the first years of life,” says Parkin. “The teen brain is ‘wiring’ itself to process complexity, and the quality of that wiring is determined by what stimulates or challenges it. Learning maths creates teenage minds which excel at creativity and complex problem-solving. It multiplies an individual's prosperity options. And as a consequence it collectively lifts the economy – not over decades but almost immediately.”

Learning maths - the most important developer of 21st century mental skills capacity in teens - should never be dumbed down in educational curricula, and the already disadvantaged should never be deprived of the upliftment benefits it brings. Yet our school system and our teachers struggle to teach the subject.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of youngsters aged 15-17 are not even in school, and this will get worse as migration levels grow. How do you get maths education to mobile, un-schooled or poorly schooled kids? The only way is to make it truly inexpensive, and deliver it via their mobile phone in a format which is compelling, exciting, and gamified. This is what MindZu does.

“We are solving not just a South African maths problem. We are solving a developing world prosperity problem. And we can do it profitably, which means we grow without depending on grants or donations,” says Parkin.

The GESAwards are a joint project of leading edtech organizations from across the world. In South Africa the awards are sponsored by the UK South Africa Tech Hub, a UK government initiative.

Cape Town startup MindZu (www.mindzu.com) has made it into the finals of the Global Edtech Startup Awards. Over 3,000 companies from more than 80 countries entered the GESAwards competition, which provides an unmatched showcase for the most innovative companies from across the world.

Godfrey Parkin, co-founder of MindZu, said, “Being selected for the finals is a huge endorsement for a company that has an ambitious mission. Through quality gamified maths education we improve the lives of millions in South Africa, and worldwide – irrespective of how dire or non-existent their school circumstances are.”

MindZu provides a full year of the highest quality maths education, via the learner’s own phone, for the price of a meal.

“The education system has failed the masses in South Africa and throughout the developing world,” says Parkin. “Most edtech operates within this failed system, so it too fails the masses.” MindZu is disrupting education by going direct to learners.

The company’s focus is on maths, particularly the final years of high school. To MindZu, learning maths is more than just being able to regurgitate Pythagoras or pass exams. “The early teenage brain is evolving faster than at any time other than the first years of life,” says Parkin. “The teen brain is ‘wiring’ itself to process complexity, and the quality of that wiring is determined by what stimulates or challenges it. Learning maths creates teenage minds which excel at creativity and complex problem-solving. It multiplies an individual's prosperity options. And as a consequence it collectively lifts the economy – not over decades but almost immediately.”

Learning maths - the most important developer of 21st century mental skills capacity in teens - should never be dumbed down in educational curricula, and the already disadvantaged should never be deprived of the upliftment benefits it brings. Yet our school system and our teachers struggle to teach the subject.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of youngsters aged 15-17 are not even in school, and this will get worse as migration levels grow. How do you get maths education to mobile, un-schooled or poorly schooled kids? The only way is to make it truly inexpensive, and deliver it via their mobile phone in a format which is compelling, exciting, and gamified. This is what MindZu does.

“We are solving not just a South African maths problem. We are solving a developing world prosperity problem. And we can do it profitably, which means we will be able to grow without depending on grants or donations,” says Parkin.

The GESAwards are a joint project of leading edtech organizations from across the world. In South Africa the awards are sponsored by the UK South Africa Tech Hub, a UK government initiative.

South Africa’s Mother City will host a first-of-its-kind Summit from 13 – 15 May 2019 where pioneers in the provision of digital media and marketing technology solutions to the region’s SMEs will meet for three days of knowledge-sharing, networking and dynamic debate.  

As Africa’s biggest and fastest-growing technology hub, it is no surprise that BigFive Digital chose the city of Cape Town as host for its inaugural Summit. This event is a first for the continent for companies building digital marketing, commerce, and back-office solutions for small businesses across Africa and the Middle East (AME).  

According to the 2018 Endeavor Insight Report, released in conjunction with the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi), Wesgro and the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, Cape Town employs over 40,000 people within the sector - twice as many as Johannesburg. Other major tech hubs in Africa such as Lagos and Nairobi employ 9,000 and 7,000 people respectively, according to CiTi. Cape Town’s unique blend of unrivalled scenic beauty, urban style and global culture has made it a melting pot of creativity and innovation for digital and tech professionals.  

“The choice of Cape Town as location for the inaugural BigFive Summit, where digital solutions for African companies are showcased, is testament to the fact that Cape Town is not only emerging as Africa’s tech hub, but also a hub for thought leadership in tech-enabled approaches to doing business,” says Tim Harris, CEO of Wesgro. “This event also shows increasing global recognition for Cape Town as an internationally competitive tech and innovation hub. The Cape region's strength lies in a combination of factors including access to sound infrastructure and a skilled and energetic workforce, proximity to four top universities and two globally recognized business schools, a favourable lifestyle, and a local and provincial government supportive of entrepreneurship and innovation.”

Hosted by BigFive Digital, one of the foremost thought-leadership enterprises connecting AME media and tech companies to SMEs, BigFive Summit will assemble a compelling mix of media, tech and digital stakeholders, influential thought-leaders, and disruptive start-ups in Cape Town to address the five key elements fuelling the rise and growth of the AME digital ecosystem – Search, Social, Mobile, Location, and Payments.

“As Africa’s leading technology hub, it is indeed our honour to host the BigFive Summit in Cape Town”, says Alderman James Vos, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management. “As a forward-thinking city we look forward to continuing to enable the Tech sector and partnering with endeavours arising from this Summit”.

The Summit is set to feature headline talks and workshops that will challenge thinking, stimulate ideas and offer practical advice for those with the common goal of bringing to market digital solutions for SMEs throughout Africa and the Middle East.

Speakers include Katlego Maphai, Co-Founder and CEO of Yoco; Louw Barnardt, Co-Founder and MD of Outsourced CFO; Gustav Praekelt, Founder and CEO of South African Praekelt Group; Sarah Utermark, Country Director, Mobile Marketing Association South Africa; and Nick Grubb, Chief Executive: Radio at Kagiso Media.

The inspiring speaker list also features the world leaders in Search and Social marketing, Google and Facebook respectively, plus Thabo Seopa and Paul Plant, two of the Co-Founders of BigFive Digital, together with many other industry luminaries.

Details of the Event: BigFive Summit 2019

The Summit will take place from 13 - 15 May 2019 at Workshop 17 at the prestigious V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. With two cocktail receptions, plus a networking dinner all included in the package, delegates will have an opportunity to engage with like-minded companies eager to promote and sustain the local commerce landscape.To register as a delegate, join our list of speakers or learn about sponsorship opportunities, visit: www.bigfivedigital.org/summit.

ENDSExecutive Survey – Receive a Discount Code to attend BigFive Summit

BigFive Summit is currently running an Executive Survey to gauge how leaders inside companies who serve or sell to SMEs view the digital opportunity. The full findings of the survey will be presented at BigFive Summit. Anyone working in this space is encouraged to participate in the survey. The more responses we receive, the better. All contributors to the survey will receive a discount code on tickets to the event. Take the survey here: http://bit.ly/ExecutiveSurvey

For more information about BigFive Summit or this press release, please contact:

Mika Stanvliet | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | 081 534 6237

About BigFive Digital: BigFive Digital was created to support digital media and technology solutions providers serving local SMEs throughout Africa & The Middle East. BigFive Digital has been co-founded by four highly respected global media and digital commerce executives: Thabo Seopa, Paul Plant, Charles Laughlin, and Oscar Sousa Marques. Collectively, they have spent more than a century experiencing digital transformation, witnessing first-hand the impacts of disruptive innovations in local marketing and commerce in various countries all over the world.  For more information about BigFive Digital, visit: https://bigfivedigital.org/

About BigFive Summit:Hosted by BigFive Digital, BigFive Summit is a knowledge-sharing and networking event for companies that provide digital marketing and technology solutions to local businesses across Africa & The Middle East. The Summit is built around the five pillars that support local commerce, namely: Search, Social, Mobile, Location and Payments. It is these five sectors that are fuelling the rapid rise and growth of digital and technology adoption across the region. Any company with a vested interest in this exciting ecosystem is invited to join us in Cape Town, from 13 - 15 May 2019.For more information about the Summit, please visit: https://bigfivedigital.org/summit/ https://www.smesouthafrica.co.za/cape-town-is-home-to-africas-most-productive-tech-sector/

The world will change more in the next three years than in the past thirty. How do you survive? How do you thrive? Learn how to approach the future with confidence at Own The Future, the disruption strategy seminar taking place in Johannesburg on May 13th.

If you assume your world in 2022 will be like it is now, but with some cooler tech, you are wrong. Chaotic shifts in society, politics, climate, population movement, technology and consumer behavior are making yesterday’s strategies dangerously irrelevant. Whether you are a corporate business leader, a politician, a startup entrepreneur, an academic, a parent or an individual employee, you have to develop the skills needed for making good decisions in conditions of massive uncertainty.

Led by author, futurist, and strategy guru Godfrey Parkin, Own The Future helps you take control of the accelerating digital disruption in your world and your markets. It guides you through powerful approaches to rethinking your strategies and business models for the immediate future.

According to Parkin, “Mastering disruption is not about digital transformation, or even about technology. It is about seeing the big picture by integrating global and local trends, and assessing their impact on people’s priorities and behavior. You have to look for ways to improve your business model and customer experience, and be ready and willing to own them. You have to be where the ball is going to drop, instead of having to chase after it when it is already too late.”

Change requires that you let go of the past, and challenge wishful thinking about the future. The structured approaches used in the workshop make it easier to question established assumptions, become inspired, and to move forward with confidence.

“People today are more easily manipulated, and more ready to try something new, than ever before,” says Parkin. “Privacy no longer exists. Technologies change exponentially, and customer behavior follows; most businesses and professions change much slower, so their hold on customer loyalty erodes quickly. The gaps between what people want and what is delivered become expanding worlds of risk. But in chaos is opportunity!”

Participants in Own the Future learn how to cut through the chaos to build focused strategies for success. They learn how to stay strategically competitive, and how to stay ahead of the game.Own The Future takes place in Johannesburg on 13th May, and places are limited. Contact Britefire at britefire.com or 021 794 7838 for details.

Details regarding the speaker line-up and agenda for BigFive Summit have been announced. Cape Town will play host to the Summit from 13 – 15 May 2019 where pioneers in the provision of digital media and marketing technology solutions to the region’s SMEs will converge for three exciting days of knowledge-sharing, networking and debate. The overarching purpose is to explore how media, mobile and technology vendors, and their agencies, can work together to drive and promote technology adoption for literally millions of local businesses across Africa and the Middle East.

With an estimated 40 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa and the Middle East (AME), it should come as no surprise that our continent is supporting a vibrant and fast-growing ecosystem of media, telecoms, financial and software companies eager to bring these businesses into the digital age. 

Enter BigFive Summit, a first-of-its-kind for Africa, designed by and for companies engaged in the supply, sale and servicing of digital marketing and productivity solutions to SMEs across the Africa/Middle East region.

Hosted by BigFive Digital, one of the foremost thought-leadership enterprises connecting AME media and tech companies to SMEs, the event will assemble an exciting mix of media, tech and digital stakeholders, influential thought-leaders, and disruptive start-ups to address the five key elements fueling the rise and growth of the AME digital ecosystem – Search, Social, Mobile, Location, and Payments.

The event features a number of exciting and influential speakers, each of which is an experts or pioneer in their respective fields:

Katlego Maphai is the Co-Founder and CEO of revolutionary South African innovation Yoco. Maphai has overcome many hurdles to build a payments solution that today powers tens of thousands of small businesses in SA by providing an easily accessible and easy-to-use platform to help start, run and grow your business.

Louw Barnardt is the Co-Founder and MD of Outsourced CFO. In 2017, he was nominated as one of FastCompany’s Most Innovative Companies of the Year, and in 2018 received the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Outsourced CFO is disrupting traditional financing and accounting practices for SMEs providing cloud-based services, combining integrity and professional excellence.

Gustav Praekelt is the Founder and CEO of South African Praekelt Group. He is a passionate believer that mobile technology will transform Africa. While spearheading groundbreaking work in the digital arena, Gustav established the Praekelt Foundation, to develop scalable mobile solutions for social good, whose programmes have reached over 100 million people across 30 countries.

Brendan King is Co-Founder and CEO of Vendasta Technologies, a Saskatoon Canada-based multi-award-winning platform for the sales and fulfilment of digital solutions. Vendasta partners with almost every major digital brand, including Google and Facebook, and is the platform of choice for many of the leading marketing agencies in North America.

Nick Grubb is Chief Executive: Radio at Kagiso Media, one of South Africa’s largest media owners. Nick oversees radio operations at Kagiso, including two of the country’s largest independent stations, Jacaranda FM and East Coast Radio. A Bachelor in Journalism and Media Studies from Rhodes University, Nick’s entire career has been in media, and he is expertly placed to talk about the changing dynamics of media consumption across AME.O

ther confirmed speakers include:

Chantelle Bowyer, CEO, Metis Online (South Africa)

Cheryl Ingram, Digital Marketing Director, The Digital Media Collective (South Africa)

Adi Engel, CBDO, vCita (Israel)

Trevor Harries-Jones, CEO, Yola (South Africa & USA)

George Leith, CRO, Vendasta (Canada)

Sandy Lohr, CEO, Matchcraft (USA)

Lyndon Munetsi, CRO, Trudon (South Africa)

Trevor Nadeau, CEO, Local Knowledge (Dubai)

Sohail Nawaz MBE, Former CEO ACS Media (Bahrain)

Magnus Rademeyer, Managing Director, AfriGIS (South Africa)

Ezana Raswork, Founder and MD, Africa 118 (Kenya)

Lunga Siyo, CEO, Trudon (South Africa)

Daryl Van Arkel, CEO, BPS & Vicinity Media (South Africa)

The speaker list also features:

Thabo Seopa and Paul Plant, two of the Co-Founders of BigFive Digital, hosts of BigFive Summit.

BigFive Summit promises to be an informative event packed to the brim with topics highly relevant to any company selling or servicing technology solutions to the region’s SMEs, including:

Why Africa is Poised for a Small Business Revolution

How Industry Leaders View the AME Digital Opportunity (results of Exec Survey)

The Changing Face of Media & Solution Selling

The Local Customer Journey 2019

The Payments Revolution and the Transforming of Africa’s Small Business Ecosystem

Transforming Business Results with Location Insights

Time for Local Radio to Tune-In to the Digital Opportunity

Running a Digital Agency in an Automated Age

The Impact of Data/AI and Machine Learning on Local Commerce

Messaging Apps and Conversational Commerce

Unlocking the Location Data Opportunity

Can SEO Work for Very Small Businesses?

The Importance of Reputation Management

BigFive Start-up Showcase – A Peek at the Next Wave of Disruptors

The Unfiltered Truth – SMEs Talking Digital Transformation

The Service Imperative – Preventing Customer Churn

The Do’s and Don’ts of Search & Social Marketing

The Path to Ecommerce for Small Businesses

Details of the Event: BigFive Summit 2019

The Summit will take place from 13 - 15 May 2019 at Workshop 17 in the prestigious V&A Waterfront in Cape Town and will feature some of the finest digital practitioners sharing strategic insights, best practices, and practical guidance for success, through a series of engaging presentations, tactical sessions and networking forums. 

With two cocktail receptions, plus a networking dinner all included in the package, delegates will have an opportunity to engage with like-minded companies, eager to promote and sustain the local commerce landscape.

To register as a delegate, join our list of speakers or learn about sponsorship opportunities, visit: www.bigfivedigital.org/summit 

Executive Survey – Respondents will receive a Discount Code to attend BigFive Summit

BigFive Summit is currently running an Executive Survey to gauge how leaders inside companies who serve or sell to SMEs view the digital opportunity. The full findings of the survey will be presented at BigFive Summit. Anyone working in this space is encouraged to participate in the survey. The more responses we receive, the better.

All contributors to the survey will receive a discount code on tickets to the event.

Take the survey here: http://bit.ly/ExecutiveSurvey

ENDS 

For more information about BigFive Summit or this press release, please contact:

Mika Stanvliet | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | 081 534 6237  

About BigFive Digital:

BigFive Digital was created to support digital media and technology solutions providers serving local SMEs throughout Africa & The Middle East. The Africa/Middle East region is enjoying a period of sustained economic growth. Every major indicator is predicted to perform above global averages for the next decade, with the region boasting six of the world’s ten fastest growing national economies*. Local digital commerce is widely recognized as a lead indicator of a healthy and growing modern economy.*Sources: The Economist; The UN; The World Bank; McKinsey & Co.BigFive Digital has been co-founded by four highly respected global media and digital commerce executives: Thabo Seopa, Paul Plant, Charles Laughlin, and Oscar Sousa Marques. Collectively, they have spent more than a century experiencing digital transformation, witnessing first-hand the impacts of disruptive innovations in local marketing and commerce in various countries all over the world.  

For more information about BigFive Digital, visit: https://bigfivedigital.org/ 

About BigFive Summit:

Hosted by BigFive Digital, BigFive Summit is a knowledge-sharing and networking event for companies that provide digital marketing and technology solutions to local businesses across Africa & The Middle East. The Summit is built around the five pillars that support local commerce, namely: Search, Social, Mobile, Location and Payments. It is these five sectors that are fueling the rapid rise and growth of digital and technology adoption across the region. Any company with a vested interest in this exciting ecosystem is invited to join us in Cape Town, from 13-15 May 2019.

For more information about the Summit, please visit: https://bigfivedigital.org/summit/

Gauteng businesses wanting to take control of the growing digital disruption in their markets will be headed for “Own The Future” on Aril 8th. Led by digital strategy veteran Godfrey Parkin, Own The Future is a strategy workshop where participants will rethink their business models in the light of emerging scenarios for the immediate future.

According to Parkin, “In the past few years we have seen unprecedented numbers of established businesses suddenly going under. Most of them have no idea what happened. At the same time, new businesses or industries have come from nowhere to total domination almost overnight. Mastering disruption is not about digital transformation, or even about technology. It is about reading the trends in customer behaviour, seeing the emergent opportunities for improving customer experience, and being ready and willing to own them. Your business has to be where the ball is going to drop, instead of chasing after it when it is already too late.”

The workshop apparently can be a little uncomfortable, as change does not come without letting go of the past, or challenging wishful thinking about the future. The structured approaches used in the workshop make it easier to question established assumptions, become inspired and to move forward with confidence.

“People today are more easily manipulated, and more ready to try something new, than ever before,” says Parkin. “Privacy no longer exists. Technologies change exponentially, and customer behavior follows; most businesses change much slower, so their hold on customer loyalty erodes quickly. The gaps between what people want and what is delivered become expanding worlds of opportunity, or risk.”

Participants in the Own the Future workshop learn how to cut through the chaos of unpredictable change to build clearly focused strategies for success. They will gain a profound understanding of the most important digital and social trends, and will learn how to stay strategically competitive. They will also discover the tools and resources that can help them stay ahead of accelerating disruption.

Britefire, the producers of the workshop, assert that every industry and sector will change more in the next three years than in the past thirty. The conjunction of coming social, political, educational and technological changes creates an immediate future which has to be confronted realistically, with strategy and conviction. “You cannot succeed over the coming three years with the business models and customer experiences that sustained you till now. Own The Future will put you back in control of disruption, so it works for you rather than against you.”

Intriguing workshop topics include:

• World on the brink: societal and digital revolutions
• Innovation, disruption, hype and reality 
• Methodologies for business model disruption 
• Identifying your opportunities to differentiate 
• Optimising the radical: from fragile to agile 
• Creating and implementing your disruption strategy

The workshop is being held in the Sandton area on 8th April, and places are limited. Contact Britefire for details.

BigFive Summit is coming to Cape Town from 13–15 May 2019, featuring headline talks and workshops that will challenge thinking, stimulate ideas and offer practical advice for those with the common goal of bringing to market digital solutions for SMEs throughout Africa & The Middle East.

BigFive Summit is the ideal networking and knowledge-sharing hub for media and technology companies, digital agencies, influential thought leaders, as well as disruptive startups and entrepreneurs across the Africa/Middle East (AME) digital tech ecosystem. The Summit’s agenda and content is constructed around the cornerstone pillars that support the local digital commerce ecosystem — Search, Social, Mobile, Location, and Payments.  

BigFive Summit is open to anyone seeking to play an active role in advancing SME participation via digital marketing, productivity improvement, transactional ecommerce, and back-office efficiency.

The event will highlight the enormous opportunities and challenges associated with bringing to market digital media and cloud-based business efficiency solutions for local merchants.

“In recent years, as a direct consequence of the explosive growth in smartphone adoption, literally millions of African & Middle Eastern consumers are experiencing the online world for the first time,” comments Thabo Seopa, Co-Founder and Chairman of BigFive Digital. “We created BigFive Digital to serve and support the growing community of media, mobile, technology and software companies who are providing the infrastructure that allows local SMEs to participate in this digital revolution.”

BigFive Summit ultimately sets out to promote and sustain the local commerce ecosystem by sharing best-practice and knowledge across topics of mutual interest, for the purpose of fostering mutually beneficial partnerships and business development opportunities. Attendance at BigFive Summit will provide delegates with ample opportunities for networking and business development.

“It is very much our intention to provide a platform for market-leading African & Middle Eastern media, marketing and technology vendors to learn, share and collaborate with their regional and global peers,” says Paul Plant, BigFive Digital’s Director of Operations. “We seek to build a multi-national community of like-minded companies who share our passion and objectives for helping local business owners to benefit from the digital economy.”

BigFive Summit will take place at Workshop 17 at the V&A Waterfront, in Cape Town from 13-15 May 2019.

For more information and to register as a delegate, visit www.bigfivedigital.org/summit

For speaking opportunities, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Or to exhibit or sponsor at BigFive Summit, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

-- ENDS --

For more information on BigFive Digital or this press release, please contact: Mika Stanvliet | +27 (0) 81 534 6237 | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Riverbed is a bold and contemporary through-the-line creative agency. It is a black, female owned company that has throughout its ten plus years, navigated and adapted to industry changes to remain relevant and competitive. And now in this month of new beginnings, Riverbed announces its rebrand, revealing a modern look that’s more closely aligned to its renewed vision. 

Earlier this year, the agency’s founder and CEO Monalisa Sibongile Zwambila refocused the agency to place ‘brand experience’ at the heart of its creative thinking. “In the age of CX, Riverbed is fervent about developing creativity that people want to spend time with and so we’re always thinking about how we can build emotional attachments between the brands we represent and their consumers. Even through our brand assets such as our website refresh, we’re aspiring to build a brand and an agency that our customers will want to spend time with too,” shared Zwambila. 

Riverbed’s new identity is bold, contemporary, striking and simple. The imagery used with the icon is ever-changing, boasting a versatility that never tires. The creative team behind the redesign added that the predominant black and white colour palette is timeless, but through the application of colour, can be expressed differently to suit specific needs, again keeping it current. 

Zwambila commented, “Our team is aligned to our new ambition to become a leading independent agency and we felt that while over time Riverbed had evolved, our brand hadn’t. We wanted a strong, attractive brand statement that supported this ambition.” 

Awarded designer, Catherine Blomkamp developed the new CI, while Muguette Crozier created the website internally, fortifying the agency’s growing digital competency.                                            

Java Launch: The Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) recently launched the latest of their Tech Skills and Job-Readiness Programmes for previously disadvantaged South African youth interested in a future coding or software development career.

24 August 2018 – Young, unemployed South Africans that are passionate about a career in digital are invited to apply before 10 September 2018 to the Java Launch CapaCiTi training and placement programme set to kick off in Johannesburg and Cape Town late September.

CapaCiTi, a full-time tech career accelerator for ambitious youth, earlier this year significantly scaled up its programme delivery to support even more talented young tech enthusiasts. For those who are crazy about technology and ready to work hard – these programmes are a powerful platform to secure your digital career.

The CapaCiTi programmes are to be run at its brand-new tech student campus in Salt River, Cape Town, and at the CapaCiTi training hub at Resolution Circle in Milpark, Johannesburg. CapaCiTi students have direct access to CiTi’s vibrant technology and entrepreneurship ecosystem to access further opportunities and form valuable connections with other tech professionals and leaders through events and mentorship opportunities.

The goal is to equip 3000 talented young South Africans with industry-demanded technology and business skills, placing graduates into internships and permanent jobs in South Africa's leading companies. The Java Launch programme is the most recent high impact programme available to youth in Cape Town and Joburg. The programme is open to previously disadvantaged, unemployed youth.

The Java Launch Programme

Young South African that are interested in solving problems, curious about how things work, are interested in and passionate about mathematics and science, and excited about the applications and growth of tech, will succeed on the Java Launch programme.

The Java Launch CapaCiTi programme teaches students to code with Java, but also the broader technical and business knowledge you’ll need to succeed in today’s workplace. During the programme students will learn the fundamentals of Java, one of the most in-demand and foundational programming languages both within South Africa and internationally.

Participants in the programme will learn:

Java fundamentals (Intro to Java/Variables, Expressions and Statements/Control/Loops)

Java Data Structures and Error Handling (1D arrays, 2D arrays/Types of errors/Exception handling)

Java OOP and Advanced Programming (Classes and Objects/Classes and Methods/OOP principles/Complex topics.

This programme will prepare participants for careers as Junior Software Developers, Software Testers, Software Analysts and Software Engineers; but also as a great foundation for many other digital career avenues.

Application Criteria

All candidates must be 18-35 years old, previously disadvantaged, South African citizens and currently unemployed. The Java Launch programme requires applicants to be in possession of a Matric certificate. Applicants for the Java Launch programme are asked to complete an assessment to qualify for an application interview – this interview tests for problem solving and logic so those with an aptitude for STEM subjects (science, mathematics, engineering, technology) are most likely to succeed.

Pay it forward

While there are no training costs for students on the programmes, graduates will be required to pay forward their training costs only when they are settled into their new permanent job post programme. This pay-back then goes directly towards training of further young South Africans in the programme, thereby contributing to further SA youths’ digital career opportunities.

The pay-it-forward cost for the Java Launch programme is R16 000 for the skills training and coaching and an additional R9 000 travel allowance. Once a participant in the programme is settled in their first job, they will need to pay back the training costs in affordable installments every month, relative to their earnings.

In the years following graduation, CapaCiTi continues to support its alumni to support their career progression.

What to expect?

Individuals are mentored by a network of skilled coaches and receive training in important business skills such as collaboration, critical and creative thinking, presentation and personal branding. Each programme, including the Java Launch, is coupled with a 6-month internship so that candidates have an immediate chance to apply and grow their skills. On completion of the internship, candidate interviews are facilitated by CapaCiTi to ensure graduates are placed in permanent jobs.

Over the past seven years, CapaCiTi has trained over 1000 young South Africans, placing 82% of candidates, 40% being female, in technology positions at 130 partner host companies such as Media24, Woolworths, Shoprite, BCX and Absa.

“I’ve been totally blown away by CapaCiTi. The programme helped me achieve my goal, get my dream job, and start my career in Tech. I had graduated in 2012 with a Diploma in Programming from another institution and struggled to get a job in IT for over 4 years prior to joining CapaCiTi,” states Xavier Mehl who completed the CapaCiTi Software Development Programme in 2016.

CapaCiTi programmes not only provide meaningful opportunity for young South Africans to participate in the digital economy but allow companies to access job-ready young talent to diversify their teams and reduce recruitment and retention challenges. In today's industry, smart and extensive digital technology is no longer an addition but a requisite and data-driven companies who adopt and adapt tech will survive the surge in digital disruption across all sectors.

Are you a young, unemployed South African that fits the criteria and is passionate about a future career in technology?

Then APPLY ONLINE NOW for the Java Launch Programme.

Candidates need to be 18 – 35 years old, previously disadvantaged, a South African citizen and in possession of a Matric certificate.

Start #yourdigitalfuture by applying at: www.citi.org.za/capaciti-apply for the September Java Launch programme.

Connect with CapaCiTi on Facebook (@capacitiza) and Twitter (@capacitiza). 

ENDS 

For media enquiries please contact:

Mika Stanvliet | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | 081 534 6237 

ABOUT CAPACITI AND THE CAPE INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE (CITI)

CapaCiTi is a programme of the Cape Innovation & Technology Initiative (CiTi), Africa's oldest tech incubator set up to develop initiatives that support and stimulate growth in the South African digital economy. The programme provides unemployed youth with coding and tech skills, psychological and mentoring support, job readiness training, as well as internship and permanent placement in our partner companies. For the past seven years, CapaCiTi has trained young people in the Western Cape, which was then scaled to 4 cities in January 2018, to further scale over the next three years. The Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) as an organisation (NPO) has been instrumental in developing South Africa’s vibrant technology and entrepreneurship ecosystem. Its highly successful technology business incubation programmes have supported thousands of entrepreneurs in growing their businesses and contributing towards the local economy, alongside supporting key technology innovation clusters – currently Edtech, Fintech, Traveltech and Data Science. CiTi’s Bandwidth Barns are based in Woodstock and Khayelitsha, and are vibrant digital ecosystems for innovation, entrepreneurship and skills delivery. 

• Every commercial sector will change more in the next three years than in the past thirty. Digital disruption is undermining the viability of the business models of established companies at an accelerating pace, leading to worldwide closure of brands, companies, and even entire industries.
• With the help of the Own the Future workshop, South African leadership teams are now identifying disruptive opportunities for their business models and brands, and crafting strategies to thrive in the expanding chaos.

Cape Town – South African companies are urgently rethinking how they do business in the digital era.  Digital marketing has produced a growing wave of startup companies who are challenging the overhead-heavy dominance of major established businesses. But, more radical than this, some of these startups are actually disrupting the established way in which whole industries do business. The best known are Uber, Airbnb and Netflix. These have fundamentally changed the very nature of global transportation, hotel accommodation and television as well as a range of related industries.

According to digital transformation expert Godfrey Parkin “Today, every industry has its radical innovators. Their impact is fundamental and unforgiving. To survive disruption and remain relevant, companies often have to rethink their business model and restructure their organisation – not once, but continuously. Company culture usually gets in the way, so getting all your team members and on the same page is absolutely vital to success.”

The CEO of Britefire has launched an initiative to help South African boards and management teams understand disruption, and learn how to actively exploit it. Named “Own the Future”, the one-day workshop demystifies digital, and clarifies scenarios for the immediate future of business. It provides methodologies for identifying disruptive opportunities in your business model, and for creating strategies to exploit them.

Built on work Britefire has done over recent years in a number of South African companies, Own the Future is a high-impact actionable experience which engages top team members across all the disciplines in a company. 

Parkin believes that many South African companies are currently at a point known as the edge of chaos, where the pace of innovation in the competitive environment accelerates upwards just as the company's ability to change plateaus. He says "To survive in this world, you have to be supremely agile. To thrive, you have to be the one creating the chaos.” 

The opportunities for success are tremendous, but without an explicit management commitment to continuous change, businesses are endangered. Own the Future provides business leadership teams with the frameworks, tools and inspiration to identify opportunities, and to manage change with confidence.

Britefire is a future-focused business strategy and digital marketing company based in Cape Town and operating worldwide.

For more information visit britefire.com or phone 021 794 7838.

Contact details
Godfrey Parkin, CEO, and workshop facilitator: 021 794 7838   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.