The initiative, tagged Thint’iMillion, is part of the Tshepo 1Million Digital exercise and has been launched in the southern Sebokeng.

Through the wider Tshepo 1Million initiative, the provincial government aims to provide 1 million young jobseekers with skills to make them more employable, with training to be provided to at least 400000 of these youths between now and mid-2019.

Gauteng Provincial Government is partnering with a broad range of organisations and private companies like Microsoft to help address this massive skills gap by taking the frontiers of workforce training directly into the underdeveloped and rural areas, where it is needed most.

Panyaza Lesufi, Member of the Executive Committee: Education in Gauteng, said skills deficiencies were a hurdle to youth employment, making initiatives such as these vitally important as effective labour market interventions that would help us improve the employability of South African youth.

“Through initiatives such as these, government wants to make this training available within walking distance of young people within townships and informal settlements across the province,” Lesufi added.

Through the partnership with Gauteng, Microsoft aims to empower the workforce of the future.

“A workforce that is diverse, boasting a youth culture that utilises their digital skills to create a thriving city of entrepreneurs and highly skilled workers,” said Zoaib Hoosen, Managing Director of Microsoft South Africa.

Microsoft’s part of the Thint’iMillion online mass learning system fits in alongside a wider distributed blended learning and video enabled learning platform that is self-led and being rolled out as of the start of this year.

From a digital skills perspective, the training includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint skills.
– CAJ News