Cape Town, South Africa – May 21, 2024 : Against the backdrop of alarming youth unemployment rates in South Africa (SA), ALX, a leading career accelerator and tech training provider, is transforming youth employment and pioneering digital transformation by providing young individuals across the continent with access to cutting-edge technical skills.
ALX’s impact was recently recognised at the Africa Tech Week Awards in Cape Town, where it received the prestigious EdTech Award, underscoring its pivotal role in shaping the future of work and enabling skills development for young people across the continent.
Empowering tech leaders and driving youth employment.
With Statistics SA’s (StatsSA’s) latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) highlighting a youth unemployment rate of 45.5 percent, the urgency to tackle unemployment and skill inadequacy is critical.
“Action is paramount for the future of our young people; it is critical to drive sustainable and meaningful participation of youth in the economy. Access to cutting edge digital skills will drive employment, encourage entrepreneurship, and contribute to massive economic growth,” says Divesh Sooka, General Manager, ALX and SAND South Africa.
“Africa is home to a rapidly growing talent pool set to surpass India and China’s workforce by 2035. By the end of this century, 40 percent of the world’s population will be African. Given Africa’s abundance of young talent and potential, our youth are well-positioned to solve the massive global technology skills shortage,” he adds.
Making Tech Education and jobs accessible
Now in its sixth year, the Africa Tech Week Awards celebrate the continent’s leading tech innovators and visionaries, recognising excellence in technology and innovation. “This award underscores our commitment to excellence, the importance of bridging the skills gap and the urgency of making quality tech education accessible and affordable to our youth,” says Sooka.
ALX is on a mission to develop three million ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in Africa by 2035 with programmes equipping learners with practical, in demand skills that will create millions of job opportunities while solving the world’s technology talent shortage. “Our blended learning model equips students with 21st-century skills. Beyond developing technical prowess, our programmes focus on nurturing soft skills such as critical thinking and adaptability, cultivating well-rounded individuals who stand out in the workplace,” says Sooka.
ALX’s tech training courses have already graduated over 97,000 learners with graduates achieving an incredible 85% success rate of job placement after finishing a course. “Our learners have secured positions at leading global companies such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft and we’ve empowered over 79,000 aspiring young tech leaders and entrepreneurs in South Africa,” says Sooka.
With 29 conveniently located tech hubs across eight cities in Africa and two tech hubs in Johannesburg, South Africa, ALX is enabling accessibility to tech-training, providing high speed internet, back up electricity, collaboration spaces and community managers to support learners. Majority of ALX’s programmes are fully sponsored and require no prior experience.
Our goal for this year is to graduate over 300,000 learners and we’re well on our way to achieving this, having already enrolled over 218,000 learners since January this year,” says Sooka.
For more information about ALX and its programmes, please visit https://tech.alxafrica.com/south-africa.