IT giant, Pinnacle Holdings, partners with MICT SETA to accelerate skills development and training within the IT sector.

The Pinnacle Holdings Group, which consists of companies AxizWorkgroup, CentraFin, CentraVoice, Datanet, Infrasol, JAG Engineering, Merqu Communications, Modrac, PBS Africa, Pinnacle Africa, PinnPos and PinnSec, has partnered with MICT SETA and Hlanganani ICT to accelerate skills development and training.

The Group has, over the last 2 years, partnered with certified training providers and the MICT SETA has taken a number of learners in various 12 month NQF aligned training programmes.

For the third consecutive year, the Group is proud to introduce another group of learners that will go through similar training programmes that will be project managed by Hlanganani ICT overlapping to the 2014/2015 financial year. The programme was ear-marked for students from local FET Colleges and was open to anyone with a Matric qualification who is currently unemployed. The training programmes consist of workplace practicals and theoretical components within the Information and Communications Technology field. Although not guaranteed, learners will be considered for potential employment within one of the Group’s subsidiaries.

The new learnership programme was launched 24 January 2014 at AxizWorkgroup’s premises and played host to Pinnacle Group Executives, the MICT SETA, Hlanganani management as well as members of the Gauteng Department of Education, not to mention the learners themselves.

The fifty learners that make up this year’s group have already been assigned to specific companies within the Group and have designated mentors who will take them under their wings. Twenty learners have been allocated to AxizWorkgroup and the remaining thirty have been assigned to Pinnacle Africa.

Upon completion of their one year contract, learners will receive national qualifications certificates in various fields in line with the MICT SETA and the Department of High Education’s requirements.

“At Pinnacle Holdings, we firmly believe and echo former president Nelson Mandela’s belief that education is the most powerful weapon one can use to change the world,” said Robert Nkuna, Pinnacle Group HR Director.

“We believe in people, the potential they have and the determination that drives them to succeed. It is as a result of this belief that we have welcomed the partnership with MICT SETA to facilitate a learnership programme,” continued Nkuna.

The recent focus that’s been given to the ICT skills shortage in South Africa was a hot topic during the launch as both Seni Hlongwane (IT Service Management Director at the Gauteng Department of Education) and Takalani Tshivhase (Executive Director of Pinnacle Holdings) shed light on this concern. Hlongwane advised that the shortage of skills in the ICT industry in South Africa is a big concern for the economy and if not addressed soon, will negatively impact the economic development of the country.

Tshivhase highlighted the fact that the ICT skills shortage is exactly that – a skills shortage and not a job shortage. He urged the learners to work hard to learn the necessary skills and advised that gaining skills does not happen miraculously, but through sustained hard work. Tshivhase drove his point home by making reference to the phrase, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.

Tshivhase also advised the learners that the learnership is not only about getting a certificate, but about the skills they learn which are not limited to the boundaries of the boardroom, but are applicable to life in general.

Group CEO of Hlanganani, Ernest Mahlaule, echoed Tshivhase’s last point by stating, “If you stop learning, you stop growing.” Mahlaule also referred to the Pinnacle Holdings group as a serious role model that wants to invest in young people.

The 50 learners now enter their 12 month journey and will graduate early 2015.