by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE MTN Group is bridging the data analytics skills gap in Africa.
Through some of its operating companies, it is partnering with SAS Training, Courses and Classes to train up to 100 young people in the field.
This is part of the MTN Skills Academy’s work to promote digital skills, in turn supporting MTN Group’s strategic intent of providing digital solutions for Africa’s progress.
“For Africa to realise its full potential, we need to address the lack of skills funding,” said MTN Group Senior Vice President for Markets, Ebenezer Asante.
Eight MTN operating companies have assigned learners to participate in the training that the Group is providing through its partnership with SAS.
Asante noted Africa has the largest and fastest-growing youth population in the world yet holding tremendous development promise, youth unemployment statistics remain a concern.
“It is only by investing in developing the right skills that we are going to overcome this challenge,” Asante added.
The training initiative consists of a six-week programme, the first part of which is self-paced and the second contains live instructor-led courses.
Essie Mokgonyana, SAS Country Manager and Sales Director for South Africa, said the company is committed to supporting public and private organisations across Africa adopt cloud platforms.
This would enable them to tap into the full potential of their analytic capabilities and resources to accelerate innovation and higher operational efficiencies.
Mokgonyana said key to this support is creating and sustaining skills-based training programmes that meet industries’ needs for critical data science skills while offering the youth opportunities to access gainful professional advancement and employment tomorrow but lay the path for future talent pipelines.
“We are exceptionally proud to partner with MTN Group on this programme that bodes enormous potential for all parties involved,” Makgonya said.
Adesh Nathalal, Education Manager at SAS in South Africa, said during this programme participants will have full access to SAS® Skill Builder for Students, which includes a repository of resources to help participants learn SAS Data Science skills.
Polaris Market Research puts the 2021 value of the global data science platform market at $95 billion.
It expects it to expand at a compound annual growth rate of more than 27 percent through to 2030, driven by the increasing data volumes being generated by organisations.
– CAJ News