The tech talent shortage on the African continent poses a real threat to the development and growth of many African organizations.
Among the areas in high demand are cloud computing, Machine Learning, data science, software engineering, and cybersecurity and many businesses are scanning for ways to ensure that employees are acquainted with the latest skills and technologies that facilitate business agility.
A lack of skills and resources has been either the number one or number two obstacle to achieving organizational objectives, according to the past four annual Gartner CIO surveys.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC, World Bank) believes that by 2030, more than 230 million jobs will require digital skills in Africa.
Worryingly, the COVID-19 pandemic may cause these alarming numbers to rise due to a significant increase in the demand for digital tools and processes. This is an important shift in the workplace dynamic that needs to be taken seriously by organizations and their leaders.
Bridging the tech skills gap
As more and more jobs open up in Africa in the ICT sector, developing the right skills is critical, not only for organizations but also for the economy of every individual African economy, to build and enable prosperity for all on the continent.
Mint Africa is not exempt from the pressures of this skills gap. Finding immediate, workable solutions to plug these holes remains a priority. This is why we have created a partnership with YIPS Africa.
YIPS Africa aims to bridge the tech skills shortage and maximize the impact of the world’s largest untapped tech talent pool: Africa. Founded in 2009, YIPS has been growing a network of technology leaders in Africa, bringing the world and African tech sectors closer together and helping companies overcome their talent shortages to build better products and solutions, faster.
Mint Africa can localize our services in every country by sourcing local resources through the YIPS network. In this way, we can offer global best practices but still implement with local people to adapt to the specific market needs.
By so doing, we also empower local people to participate in developing solutions on the Microsoft platform. This is a crucial contributor to creating job opportunities for young tech-savvy people and is aligned with government job creation initiatives. Over time, this will grow a network of skilled young people working on the Microsoft platform across the continent.
To provide companies with world-class resources, YIPS invests in building talent, helping them achieve mastery in end-to-end deployment and support on the Microsoft ecosystem.
YIPS relies on Microsoft Learn courses, their customized in-house lab modules and Microsoft Certifications to grow their skills, using a custom learning path aligned to YIPS’s core competencies: collaboration, results, trust, work ethic and diligence.
Growth where it is most needed
With YIPS adding new talent each month, their numbers continue to grow rapidly.
“With Microsoft Learn and our in-house lab modules, we have a platform offering a wealth of educational content to help our talent quickly level up their skills and execute their daily tasks,” explains Ogbechie.
YIPS also has tools and analytics to monitor progress and feedback to develop technology leaders who are well-versed in high-demand skillsets within the technology space.
The World Economic Forum predicts that the demand for digital skills training in Africa will surge in the coming decade as jobs that did not need digital skills before will begin to need them. YIPS and Mint Africa will be ready!
