Digital Skills Academy – a premier industry provider of online BSc degrees in digital skills – is inviting South African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to register as industry partners and participate in its industry partner programme.
The programme will see experienced professionals enrolled in the academy’s international BSc degrees to implement projects for participating SMEs.
The projects are undertaken by cross-functional teams of participants, which typically include project managers, Web and app developers, data analysts, digital marketers and digital designers.
“SMEs often do not have the information technology skills or budgets needed to implement new digital projects, so partnering with Digital Skills Academy is a good match.
“SMEs have their digital innovation projects developed free of charge, and the academy’s participants get excellent learning experience developing digital products that solve real-world business challenges,” said the academy.
SMEs can apply to become an industry partner by outlining key digital projects they wish to implement.
“If the projects are innovative and appropriate, a cross-functional team of Digital Skills Academy participants will be assigned to plan and implement the project,” says Digital Skills Academy CEO Paul Dunne.
Several large South African enterprises are already industry partners, including MultiChoice, MTN South Africa, Standard Bank and KPMG.
Dunne explains that projects lending themselves to the Digital Skills Academy industry partner programme are typically innovations that can be implemented over a four-month period.
The projects clearly need to benefit the industry partner, but they also need to challenge participants. They could include the development of apps for mobile or the Internet of Things; website development; software development; prototype development; process design solutions; and digital marketing and social media campaigns.