BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE– MTN Eswatini continues to align with the country’s vision of empowering the youth.
An MTN-facilitated training in Data Science has resulted to 40 young people gaining skills and two securing jobs with the telecommunications company.
This publication has gathered that MTN Eswatini has employed two female students out of the 40 students it enrolled for training last year.
In fact, this is part of the MTN Skills Academy’s work aimed at promoting digital skills for digital jobs, in-turn supporting MTN Group’s strategic intent of providing digital solutions for Africa’s progress.
The two female students were part of the 40 that were admitted to the MTN Group initiative to address Africa’s digital skills gap through a partnership with SAS Training, Courses and Classes.
In December last year they landed among the top 12 who excelled in the first phase which was a one-month basic training, beating 25 others.
The 15 have qualified to go into the second phase, which is a year-long intensive training.
During the training programme pre-launch meeting in September last year, it was explained that MTN Group decided to go with this initiative to fulfil its global perspective of enabling the benefits of a modern connected life.
“We want to equip young people with future-fit skills that will give them a better chance of survival in the digital world of tomorrow. We have come to the realisation that to keep up with rest of the world, we must play part and incubating skills required for this digital era in which we now exist.
These initiatives does not only benefit our organisation but the rest of the country because through this programme Eswatini will be rich with skilled Data Scientists and have little to no need to import such skills,” said MTN Eswatini CEO, Wandile Mtshali.
Silindile Dlamini and Nkosingiphile Mazibuko have not only been equipped with data analytics skills, but they have also landed themselves jobs with the country’s leading telecommunications company.
Dlamini, a 23-year-old graduate in International Business and Trade said this was a great initiative as there was still a great gap to be filled in STEM to have more women enter and find their foot in the digital space.
She described herself as blessed to be working in such a company like MTN that has such a great company culture.
She said being part of the programme and eventually MTN promotes one's creativity, innovation and the spirit of team work.
“I cannot sum up all my emotions, more than anything I feel honoured to have landed this job and excited to see what the journey ahead has in store for me. This has been a great journey with a few challenges here and there. Overall, the journey of acquiring new knowledge for me is always exciting,” she said.
Her highlights of the Data Science programme were that understanding data would help her make better and informed decisions for product designs, development, and customer satisfaction and revenue generation for a business.
“My passion is to use my skillset and ideas to propose better strategies for the functionality and profitability of the business. This has helped me to understand why certain things happen in businesses and how it affects customers,” she said, adding that it has also made her realise how our lives are shaped by data science.
On a lighter note, Dlamini said she was now able to select movies on Netflix under a specific category because someone was able to use data from a source and deduce it a specific category.
After graduating in 2022 she was employed by FNB where she was encouraged by her then manager to find programmes that could enhance her skillset, hence she applied for this programme.
Her message to young graduates was that, “Your dreams are valid and attainable, so long as God has placed it in your mind it is attainable.”
Mazibuko (25) on the other hand said at a time where Digital technologies dominated so many aspects of our lives, equal access is a precondition for women and girls to equally enjoy freedom of expression and access to information for their empowerment to exercise their rights and to fully participate in the private and public sphere and in the digital realm.
She expressed gratitude that MTN was strengthening women’s efforts to leverage digital technologies and gender equality across the country.
“MTN has had a profound impact on my life and without having the opportunity to partake in the Data Science course, it would have been much more challenging, if not impossible to achieve my current position in Data Mining and Analytics,” she said.
Mazibuko said she was currently balancing between works and continuously learning data science to expand her skill set and hence she feels like she was constantly growing.
Mazibuko’s learning journey has been made easier since MTN provided them with learning tools which included Mifis and Data Bundles to easily access the learning materials.
She told young people that the world is open to everyone and that they can be anything they want to be.
“My advice to young persons out there is to stay focused. It can be hard at times but you have all the resources to do well. From 11th grade and the rest of your school career is what going to set you in life so definitely be serious about what you want your future to be like,” she said.
The other students who completed training are Thabani Mabuza, Nontobeko Ngcamphalala, Tsepo Ndzinisa and Zwelakhe Dlamini.
According to a Polaris Market Research, the 2021 value of the global data science platform market at E1.727 trillion (US$95 billion) and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of more than 27 per cent through to 2030, driven by the increasing data volumes being generated by organisations.
The MTN training is part of the work of the broader MTN Skills Academy to equip young people with the skills that are in high demand, in turn making them more employable. MTN is committed to closing the skills gap and contributing to youth empowerment wherever it operates.
“For Africa to realise its full potential, we need to address the lack of skills funding,” says MTN Group Senior Vice President for Markets Ebenezer Asante, adding that eight MTN operating companies had assigned learners to participate in the training that the Group is providing through its partnership with SAS.
The focus on Africa is a bit stronger because the continent has the largest and fastest-growing population in the world. This comes with high youth unemployment statistics, hence MTN believes that the solution lies in investing in developing the right skills that to overcome this challenge.
