What’s News at Shoden?

Four graduates have emerged from this tough and demanding programme designed to transition talented, previously-disadvantaged young graduates from the student world to the world of work delivery and service excellence.

The Shoden Academy’s intensive work bridging and advancement programme, is premised on providing experiential and skills training to supplement tertiary education for these young graduates and we are proud to have sponsored the graduates with bursaries to create the opportunities for them to become real winners in the I.T. world. 

As a testament to the success of the programme, all 4 Shoden Academy graduates were offered and accepted employment at Shoden Data Systems.

Left to right Front Row 
Bethuel Magampa(graduate); Blessing Nkonzo(graduate); Makgotso Mokgatle(graduate); Pauli Taylor( Ops Manager Shoden Academy); Ndlela Maphanga(graduate)
Back Row: Danie Strydom (head instructor) Hamid Essop(Director); Dee Cranswick ( Director) Fanie van Rensburg( MD Shoden Data Systems)

Managing Director, Fanie van Rensburg, on  Shoden Data System’s role as an enterprise development partner had the following to say  –

“The Broad Based Black Empowerment Act and the Employment Equity Act directs industries to employ previously disadvantaged individuals as part of the strategy to redress  the unbalanced employment profile of the past. Against the backdrop of the chronic skills shortage in the IT industry this directive could be viewed as challenging to say the least .However this does not absolve companies such as Shoden of their obligations to comply with the Acts and has necessitated an approach on a broader scale to alleviate the difficulties.”

Pauli Taylor, Operations Manager at the Shoden Academy, stressed the importance of the Academy work bridging programme whereby talented black graduates are provided with accelerated technical, business, management and entrepreneurial training and education.

“Not all entrants into the programme will be successful, that is the nature of a programme which sees individuals as not only requiring technical skills but takes people out of comfort learning zones and tests their ability to produce high-quality work despite dealing in subject material which is new and challenging. The Academy provides a holistic experiential training opportunity which the graduates must enthusiastically embrace in order to be successful. But frankly, even those who have not graduated, but who have completed the first year of the course have benefitted, as they have acquired employment in the formal sector”.

“All of us are so proud of our students/interns who have followed their dreams to find their potential”, said Dee Cranswick. “We believe in empowering our people in every aspect of their lives – long may it last that our Shoden Academy empowers people via innovative training methods and content to utilize their talents to their best advantage”.