The 2019 Academy officially kicked off in February with a renewed commitment to skills development and job creation. Throughout the year students have truly excelled by successfully completing multiple in-house projects which have added incredible value to our organisation. We’re delighted to share the details of each project and congratulate our Academy students on a hugely rewarding and productive 2019.
Project one: Skills Matrix
The Skills Matrix application is a central repository where employees are able to upload their CVs for managers to determine their skillsets with the aim of placing them at relevant clients. The application allows for live editing of documents so that they are always kept up to date. Another great feature is a search functionality that enables seniors to search and filter through specific skills and find suitable employees to fill necessary roles at client sites.
Project two: Gatekeeper Solution
The Gatekeeper application allows users to request access to particular in-house systems such as MDS, to eliminate the need to physically contact our support team to have requests approved. The system can also be accessed from any geographical location. Once logged on to the system, it will generate an email to the appropriate approver complete with all relevant access details. Once a request is approved, the user will then gain access to their desired platform for a specific period that they have requested.
Project three: Training Portal
The Training Portal is an e-commerce website that sells various items to users. It is primarily focused on selling online IT courses which are taught virtually by our lecturers. The aim of the portal is to empower young individuals to upskill themselves so that they can find suitable employment in the IT industry. Intern, Yadhir Maharaj says: “Anyone is able to access this website and purchase these courses. The portal is not only aimed at those in the Western Cape or South Africa, but also an international audience, which will also assist in expanding our footprint.”
Courses on the website are broken up into several different categories such as programming, web, and graphic design and are offered at competitive rates by virtue of being taught digitally.
Project four: Recruitment app
The Recruitment app was created to streamline finding new talent to fill positions within the company. The current standard operating procedure for Western Cape recruitment team is as follows:
- BU managers advise on particular roles that need to be filled;
- Recruitment scans internally to check if current talent can fill that role, if not external candidates are sourced via job sites such as LinkedIn or referrals; then
- Spreadsheets are used to keep track of candidates and CVs are kept on work laptops, which restrict access to the whole team.
The Recruitment app aims to tidy up this process by creating a dedicated online portal for the recruitment team where they are able to create and track vacant posts. The app allows for linking suitable candidates to available posts, uploading CVs, as well as creating profiles, summaries, and feedback of candidates against each post. Once a suitable role has been filled, it is moved into an archive on the portal along with the candidate’s details.
As a testament to the fantastic work the Academy has done to date, we are proud to announce the first senior .Net Developer, Lwandile Mfundisi, who worked his way up the ranks since first joining the program in 2014.