27 Associate Consultants Graduate From SAP's Young Professional Program
27 Associate Consultants have graduated from SAP's Young Professional Program, the company's flagship digital skills build initiative, in East Africa following their successful completion of an all-virtual training program.
After switching to a fully virtual delivery in light of COVID-19, opportunities were created for candidates from more countries to participate in the SAP Young Professional Program across the African continent. The latest group of graduates from East Africa included candidates from Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as giving candidates in Uganda and Tanzania their first opportunity to receive SAP training and certification as part of the program.
Cathy Smith, Managing Director at SAP Africa, says the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation across the continent, creating greater need for digital skills.
"Organisations across the continent continue to adapt to a world reshaped by the pandemic, fast-tracking their digital transformation journeys in an effort to maintain business productivity and drive innovation. It is vital to us that our customers and partners have access to the depth of SAP skills they need to thrive. This latest cohort of graduates will play an important role supporting organisations across the East African region." he said.
With renewed focus on regional and pan-African cooperation through initiatives such as the newly-launched Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement and the East Africa Community, African countries and their citizens have the opportunity to collaborate like never before.
By hosting all training in a multi-country, all-virtual environment, the SAP Young Professional Program is playing a role by helping foster greater cross-cultural collaboration between candidates that would normally not have the opportunity to work together.
Since its inception in 2012, the SAP Young Professional Program, an initiative under SAP Skills for Africa, has trained more than 3150 talents across 31 countries, including more than 1390 in Africa. "The two- to three-month program covers SAP software technical and functional knowledge and certification, with a key focus on the latest SAP innovations. Soft and future skills trainings ensure graduates can make an immediate impact in the organisations they work for after graduation", explains Marita Mitschein, Managing Director of the SAP Training and Development Institute and Senior Vice President Digital Skills at SAP Southern Europe, Africa and Middle East, who launched the program in 2012.
The cohort in East Africa is part of a collaboration between SAP and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH with the aim to jointly create 450 jobs for highly-qualified personnel in the IT sector in ten African countries over the course of three years. The cooperation project is supported by the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation, which operates under the brand Invest for Jobs, and the develoPPP.de program that GIZ implements on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The next East Africa program is scheduled to start at the end of March. Recruiting is now open for candidates from Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.
