I can’t sleep tonight, I am way too excited! A friend and I have decided to try and see if we can find the answer to the following question by trying to make it happen:
What would South Africa look like if there were an oversupply of software developers?
In the 14 years I have been in the ITC sector the lack of resources has been a constant theme throughout. Our education system seems unable to provide the volume of developers needed. This also puts a serious damper on technology startups, as they need to compete with big budget corporates for the engineers to make their businesses work.
The amazing thing is that unemployment is one of our nations greatest challenges. We have a growing youth population staring down a lifetime of minimum wage jobs if they are part of the lucky ones.
This cycle needs to be broken. We strongly believe that the raw talent is here in our country to become a powerhouse in the new economy. We believe that the great developers of the future are waiting to be given the opportunity. They can become the builders of the technology and business that will help change the future of this continent.
As impossible as it might sound, what if we could get to a place in the future where there are more quality talented developers in South Africa than what big corporates can employ? Which problems that are faced by everyday South Africans can we start to solve with breakthrough technology if there are developers eager to build the solution?
We want to try and get to a place in the future where there are an oversupply of developers. We are starting a foundation to try and help 100 000 under privileged youth trained as developers. The traditional education in South Africa can’t produce what we need. Lets take the future of the industry and the country into our own hands and make a difference.
Have a look at this program in Cape Town that we are planning to support: