BPESA Future Skills and the UNDP GIZ KwaZulu Natal Skills Project
- August 15, 2023
Enabling digital transformation of the Global Business Services sector in KZN focusing on closing the gender equity gap powered by the BPESA Future Skill, UNDP and GIZ.
Business Process Enabling South Africa (BPESA) has recently undertaken a partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) under the support of the Digital Skills for Jobs and Income (DS4JI) project. The DS4JI project is implemented on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) under the support of the South African-German. BPESA with its partners have launched the funded skills project in the KwaZulu Natal region. The main objectives of this funded skills project include:
- The skilling and transitioning of 230 youth into jobs in the GBS sector, and
- The upskilling of 487 incumbents of the GBS workforce with a focus on digital
This project is designed to support the growth target achievement of the GBS sector. This includes the supply-side enablement as committed by the Government, Social Partners and
Businesses in the GBS Sector Master Plan. The demand-led is to create meaningful and quality jobs for women and youth, replicable to support growth across the country through the broader implementation of demand-led models for skilling and earning.
The BPESA Future Skills platform is implemented as a core enabling technology to support participating partners to deliver high-quality learning experiences to beneficiaries. Partners will have the ability to create bespoke private content and curate high-quality content on leading industry-curated pathways on digital and professional skills at the click of a button.
Learners can access assigned and self-managed upskilling to help catalyse personal learning pathways, professional development, and lifelong learning. Our team will be collaborating with participating partners to drive gender and digital equity to support sustainable transformation beyond this project.
"Collaborating with FSP has been an absolute pleasure and a transformative experience for us at Amalfi. Their expertise, professionalism, and commitment to excellence have exceeded our expectations. Together, we are forging new paths and redefining the industry's landscape. FSP's innovative approach and unwavering dedication align perfectly with our vision, and we are confident that this partnership will continue to drive remarkable results."
Katie Millar - Marketing Manager - Amalifi Outsourcing
The Future Skills Platform presents itself in a pleasant and easy to navigate manner, with learners not needing much guidance once they have basic navigation down.”
Shabnum Naidu – Training Content Developer – Ignition Group
The BPESA, UNDP and BMZ/GIZ partnership exemplifies our shared values and commitment to the digital transformation of the South African economy and the upliftment of women and youth. We look forward to showcasing success stories from the project soon.
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For more information on BPESA Future Skills contact:
Reshni Singh | BPESA CEO | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Andy Searle | BPESA Future Skills Program Director | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crises, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for all people. On the ground in 177 countries and territories, we offer a global perspective and local insights to help empower lives and build resilient nations. In South Africa, the UNDP country programme prioritizes youth and women development and empowerment as the bedrock of addressing poverty, unemployment and inequality. The organization focuses on three core areas: (a) Inclusive, just and sustainable economic growth (b) Effective, efficient and transformative governance (c) Climate resilience and sustainably managed natural resources In partnership with other organizations, and in support of government’s development objectives, UNDP implements the project Digital Skills for Decent Jobs for Youth Not in Employment Education or Training.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been working in South Africa since 1995. A country office opened in Pretoria in 1996. On behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany, supports the long-standing bilateral cooperation for sustainable development with the Republic of South Africa. Implementing on behalf of the German Development Ministry (BMZ) in South Africa the organisation focuses on the following core areas (a) Peaceful and inclusive societies, (b)Economic development, technical and vocational education, and training (TVET) and employment (c) Climate and energy.
The Digital Skills for Jobs and Income (DS4JI) is dedicated to improving the quality of vocational training to meet the labour market demands in South Africa. In the digitalised economy the projects aim to enhance young people, especially young women's employment prospects who transitioning from school to the world of work. The achieve this the project uses a multi-level approach based on Integrated Employment Promotion with a focus on labour supply. The firstly aims to integrate digital competences and methods into the training courses of the formal TVET (Technical and Vocational
Education and Training) system, specifically at selected TVET colleges with a focus on young people, especially girls and women. Secondly, the project offers demand-oriented training through financial and technical support of the respective service providers which will expand further training and networking measures and thus enable a larger number of young people to improve their employment prospects about dependent or self-employed employment. Thirdly, recruitment policies of companies through introducing and implementing new, gender-sensitive approaches to identifying applicants with the digital skills demanded by the company. And lastly increased networking and cooperation of initiatives and actors and the exchange of learning experiences in the transformative process of digitization of the South African economy.
