Interns are key tools in digital transformation

About six months ago, a young Kenyan named Gilbert Ngetich was living in Gataka, a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Unemployed, but with a deep passion for learning, Gilbert would study by himself in a men’s washroom, as it was the only accessible place with good light and an electrical socket.

Today, Gilbert has a full-time job as a cloud engineer at M2M Systems Limited, a partner of Microsoft. One of the first tasks in his role was to travel to the international Microsoft Inspire conference in Washington D.C, to learn, network and make new business contacts. What caused this change? An internship.

We face a perplexing and unsustainable scenario in Africa. On the one hand, we have high levels of youth unemployment. South Africa’s unemployment rate, for example, recently hit its highest level in 13 years.

In the next 20 years, over 330 million young Africans are expected to enter the job market, but only a third of them will be able to find wage jobs.

On the other hand, we have companies struggling to find and hire the right talent to remain relevant and competitive in the digital transformation era.

Like Gilbert, who before had never heard of a cloud engineer, the 2016 World Economic Forum Report on growing economies in Africa reports that 65 per cent of schoolchildren today will work in jobs that don’t exist yet. It adds that only one per cent of these children currently completing school will have the required digital skills.

Bridging this skills gap needs to begin at school level. To effectively tackle the youth unemployment problem, we need to provide youth with improved access to the internet, devices and curriculum aligned to future job prospects.

We need to identify the very skills that will get them employed and then deploy efficient learning approaches that will help them acquire these skills that lead to exciting career opportunities.

A large number of multinational corporations, including Microsoft, have launched free online learning platforms, designed to upskill millions of young Africans. But online learning – although providing a fundamental base – is not enough.

As important as hard skills are, there is also a deficiency in workforce skills, including communication, collaboration, agility and leadership. As we navigate through the fourth industrial revolution of business, these skills are becoming increasingly vital.

When we speak about digital transformation, we don’t only speak about organisations implementing technology advancements.

We also speak about cultural changes. Technology enables more collaborative, productive and agile working environments – and youth need the skills, attitudes and professionalism to successfully navigate these.

Workforce skills are often best acquired in real-world working environments. What we need, therefore, is a blended learning methodology, combining online learning with real-world, hands-on experiences.

Interns4Afrika is one of the programmes that combines the appropriate what (i.e. skills and capabilities needed), with an effective how (i.e. results-driven learning and training methodologies).

READ: Why students must learn new and more relevant digital skills

Internships are a necessary piece of the puzzle – bridging the last-mile skills gap between jobseekers and employers.

Internships give youth the on-the-job experience and workforce skills they need to shape their career, while employers can scout for the best talent, gain fresh perspectives and access to youth who grew up as digital natives.

For companies undergoing digital transformation, an internship programme could in fact be one of the best investments they make.

Interns are, by nature, hungry to learn, highly coachable and more than willing to adjust to changes and disruptions in your business. Because they are less bound by old experiences, they are more agile, which can mean accelerated transformation.

There are employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for African youth. What they need is the ability to adapt to the changing economic needs and master the digital and vocational skills necessary to succeed in evolving business environments.

Lutz Ziob is Dean of the Microsoft 4Afrika Academy.