South Africa is a skills-hungry country. In fact, according to Adzuna, the rarest skills are in the digital and technology sectors, where demand is far outstripping supply – and according to SUSE – that is exactly what the industry is seeing when it comes to open source skills.
According to Matthew Lee, regional manager for SUSE Africa: “There is a massive skills gap and demand for open source skills such as cloud, application development and DevOps locally – and especially as more businesses move towards digital transformation.
“In fact, accordingly to the Linux Jobs Report 2017, 89% of hiring managers say it is difficult to find open source talent. And, when Axiz initiated the graduate programme, we recognised the great platform such an initiative would give us to proactively contribute to mining and development much needed skills for the industry.”
The graduate programme formed in partnership between SUSE, Axiz and CTU Training Solutions has opened its doors to graduates who seek a career in open source in the efforts to increase technical resources and skills in the market.
The programme goes beyond just providing the graduates with the necessary skills, but it also pairs companies with the right talent for their needs – be it cloud technologies, web technologies, Linux, networking technologies, security etc. – allowing graduates to be absorbed into SUSE and Axiz partner/client organisations.
“Internships play a crucial role in South Africa, as it creates the opportunity for IT graduates to equip themselves with the practical knowledge and ability, in order to add value and productivity to their potential company of employment.” says Colette Swanepoel, business development manager at CTU Training Solutions.
Business Unit Manager at Axiz, Magda Hanekom, agrees and says: “Because of this, we have seen a lot of interest from graduates across Gauteng. There were over 200 applicants, from which 20 candidates were selected to partake in the 2018 graduate programme – and each of these candidates is already showing great promise. This also gives us confidence that our efforts towards closing the skills gap will be beneficial to the market in the short and long-term. The programme will also be extended to other regions in 2019, affording the opportunity to graduates across the country.”
Moosa Mkansi, one of the 20 graduates enrolled for the SUSE, Axiz and CTU Training Solutions launch joint graduate programme, comments: “This graduation programme has been excellent in terms of the exposure to and hands on learning to gain the skills that are fundamental in administering the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating system. I’m preparing to write the SCA examination in a few weeks’ time, but I am confident that once I complete this course I will be equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge that will make me a valuable asset to the industry.”
“With digital transformation on the rise, it is clear that open source is the future. The graduate programme is not only focused on upskilling these graduates and making sure they are fully equipped for the challenges of the workplace, but we will also hopefully be increasing open sources’ footprint in the South African market,” concludes Lee.