Social innovation accelerator and advisory firm Impact Amplifier has launched GetSet-4IR, a new programme aimed at upskilling the digital skills of disadvantaged South African youth and bringing them into the economy.

The initiative, supported by Google.org, was launched in May, following a study mapping the digital skills supply and demand landscape to gain a better understanding of the ecosystem challenges and opportunities that currently exist.

“Industry research shows that the demand and supply of digital skills in South Africa have rapidly increased over the last five years, but there are huge gaps that need to be addressed,” says Impact Amplifier cofounder Max Pichulik.

Through a series of ecosystem interventions, GetSet-4IR aims to support social enterprises that provide digital skills training, assist in adapting their services to market demand and create pathways to high-value employment with at least five large South African employers during 2020/21.

As a local country partner, Impact Amplifier will source, select and accelerate 12 social enterprises in South Africa that provide technology solutions for economic inclusion in South Africa.

“Social enterprises interested in building their institutional capacity, increasing their visibility and expanding relationships with demand, crafting their impact model and better matching market demand for digital skills should join this ecosystem initiative,” he says.

The initiative will target both the supply side, by working with social enterprises that provide digital skills training, and the demand side, through partnerships with employers.

“Supply interventions include increasing the number of talented youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, particularly women, entering digital skills training programmes and securing employment,” he continues.

GetSet-4IR will also increase the institutional capacity of organisations that provide digital skills training so that they are better able to scale and meet the growing and future demand for digital skills.

On the demand side, GetSet-4IR will work with employers and ecosystem funders to put in place a number of interventions that will result in building more inclusive career pathways for unemployed youth emerging from digital training programmes.

Other interventions include aligning employers’ hiring and on-boarding procedures to become more inclusive and match current skills supplied, aggregate demand needs and educate demand on the breadth and type of supply that is currently available in the market.

“The launch of this timely initiative, now more than ever, highlights the importance of aligning digital skillsets to demand, driven simultaneously by the needs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the constraints brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“With information and communication technology recognised globally as a key enabler for growth, the GetSet-4IR initiative will create a strong pipeline for job creation by matching supply and demand and equipping young unemployed South Africans with digital skills so that they can find gainful employment in the new economy and escape the cycle of poverty,” Pichulik concludes.

“Google.org is committed to empowering youth in South Africa with skills of the future, leading to meaningful professional pathways. We are delighted to support initiatives like Get-Set4IR that develop scaled training programmes and open up access to the digital economy,” adds Google South Africa country director Alistair Mokoena.

Impact Amplifier has supported other Google interventions between 2018 and 2020, including the implementation of the Google Impact Challenge South Africa.