NetHope academy equips IT graduates with workplace skills

NetHope partnered with the African Centre for Women in ICT (ACWICT) to identify the highly skilled young women who are now students in NetHope Academy and with Microsoft and Cisco helping in recruiting and placing the students in internship positions for the next six months.

The students are currently on interships in various organisations including CARE, Save the Children, Dimension Data, and the Government of Rwanda, among others.

NetHope Academy also connects students to mentors who provide regular guidance and evaluation. “We’re thrilled to bring NetHope Academy to Africa,” said Mr Schott.

The initiative comes on the background of a study by IBM meant to advice the government on how Kenya will understand the skills imbalance and mismatch going forward and projection of high-end skills demand.

The study was also to help define the quality and nature of talent and most importantly, to explore mechanisms to attract and sustain talent.

“While the government has addressed ICT infrastructure bottlenecks, human resources continue to be a challenge ,” read part of a IT skills gap report by IBM.

“Students and professors have little industry exposure and given the newness of the ICT revolution in Kenya, ICT employees have limited experience and exposure to large-scale ICT projects. Companies are forced to outsource foreign expertise for specialised ICT roles.’’

The efforts to address lack of skills for workplaces has led to various partnership between the universities and IT firms.

mokuttah@ke.nationmedia.com