[kictanet] SAP and Kenya ICT Board Partner on Skills Develeopment

[Paul Kukubo]

Kenyan Government and SAP to expand skill set of local graduates

Training aims at improving youth employability in the country’s robust ICT
sector and is inline with vision 2030



Nairobi 20th September, 2012…The government of Kenya through the Kenya ICT
Board and SAP has today announced a partnership that will see 100 bright
but underprivileged studentsundergo training to become certified SAP Software
engineers.

Dubbed “SAP Skills for Africa”, the Programme commits to deliver
professional training and certification to Kenyan university graduates. The
programme will seek to substantially improve the employability of young,
bright university graduatesand equally deliver on the government’s mandate
to promote digital inclusion, to forge Kenya as an ICT hub for Africa and
drive ICT skills development.


“The SAP partnership is key in equipping our young professionals with high
end ICT skills that are on demand in the Kenya and the wider East African
Market. This effort provides amuch needed skillset for graduates who would
otherwise not have had the privilege to be exposed to this specific set of
world class skills", said Kenya ICT Board CEO, Paul Kukubo.


The Kenya ICT Board and SAP are in partnership to deliver the latest skills
and knowledge to the students. The Kenya ICTBoard will provide classrooms
with necessary computer infrastructure and will be charged with the overall
management of the programme that will take place at the Multi Media
University, whereas SAP will provide instructors, training material and
educational systems.

Delivery of this programme will include the provision of certified
instructors, training material and case studies withSAP‘s largest
investment being the waiver of any costs related to the programme for the
students; a significant financial investment.

Modules of study for this period will be focused on best business practices
and SAP skills in financial and managerial accounting, sales and
distribution, procurement, human capital management, database and
technology, system administration and also around business reporting.

“The SAP Skills for Africa programme aims at ensuring that each and every
university graduate is equipped with the skills necessary to enter the job
market and not only gain economic stability and prosperity but also to be
able to plough back into the ecosystem”, said Pfungwa Serima,CEO Africa, SAP


By working proactively with the government bodies and with its customers,
SAP has taken the lead to deliver the opportunity for students to receive
additional practical skills, business and system knowledge that will better
equip them for today’s jobmarket, thereby increasing their possibilities of
employment.

The programme builds upon the knowledge students gained in their
undergraduate studies and provides them with hands-on experience in working
with the world’s leading business software applications company. SAP
training will delivervaluable skills on software use, best business practices
and processes that will greatly benefit the trainees and theorganizations where
they work in future.

“This initiative perfectly fits into the MMU agenda of producing graduates
who are immediately ready to be productive in the industry upon graduation,
over the years inadequate skilling of our graduates has been a chief cause
of high employment costs, causing our graduates to hop from one job to
the other.
If we can churn 100 all rounded graduates annually, we shall have arrested
this by providing a bigger talent pool for employers to choose from, said Prof.
Walter Oyawa, Principal Multimedia University

SAP is committed to ensure that upon the graduation from this programme,
students also receive a chance to put the acquired knowledge into practical
use in the real work environment. For this purpose SAP has started to work
with its customers and partners to ensure the maximum number of internships
for the graduates, which will further solidify their acquired knowledge.

Editor’s Notes:

About SAP

The world’s market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE:
SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back
office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device –
SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and
use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP
applications and services enable more than 195,000 customers (includes
customers from the acquisition of SuccessFactors) to operate profitably,
adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit
www.sap.com

About Kenya ICT Board

The Kenya ICT Board’s mandate and objectives are based on advising the
Kenyan government on all relevant matters pertaining to the development and
promotion of ICT industries in the country. In addition, the Kenya ICT
Board provides government and other stakeholders with skills, capacity and
funding for ICT projects in order to rapidly and innovatively transform
Kenya through promotion of ICT for socio-economic development.

About the Multi Media University

Founded in 1948 as Kenya College Communication Technology, MMU became a
constituent College of JKUAT in 2008.With a student population of about
3,000,MMU is a Public University College mandated to provide training in
Engineering, Information Technology, Media and Business related courses.

Due to its rich history as a Technology College under Telkom Kenya,
Multimedia University has the benefit and experience of working with the
ICT industry in order to expose its students beyond the classroom theory
and principles of technology.


-- 
Paul Kukubo
Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board
PO Box 27150 - 00100
Nairobi, Kenya

12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street

Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960
Fax: +254 20 2211962
website: www.ict.go.ke
local content project: www.tandaa.co.ke, www.facebook.com/tandaakenya
twitter:@tandaaKENYA
BPO Project: www. doitinkenya.co.ke
Digital Villages Project: www.pasha.co.ke


personal contacts
_______________

Cell: + 254 717 180001


skype: kukubopaul
googletalk: pkukubo
personal blog: www.paulkukubo.co.ke
personal twitter: @pkukubo


____________________
Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub

Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT,
through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth
for socio economic enrichment
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20120920/39199a82/attachment.htm>