Umuzi works with top employers to support young people to access high-value tech and creative careers.
Youth unemployment is one of the biggest challenges facing South Africa. Since 2014, we’ve been building an alternative to higher education: a 12-month, paid training programme, that’s demand-driven, project based, Agile, and human-centred.
Over 80% of the young people who enter our programme secure high-value jobs at top employers.
Youth Unemployment is a massive problem
There are a tremendous number of talented young people not reaching their full potential. In South Africa, millions are unemployed, and locked out of the economy, or under-employed in dead end jobs, vulnerable to automation.
There are many barriers that prevent these talented young people, particularly those from lower income communities, from accessing high-value careers. The costs of traditional education are prohibitive. Most lack the social capital to access opportunities, and many face a more urgent need to get a low-paying job just to survive.
Our solution: Umuzi’s holistic user journey
Young people can discover high-value tech and creative careers through our community content platform, Ez’Ntswembu. Anyone interested can start learning immediately through our online learning application process. The most successful candidates from our online learning are interviewed and assessed in-person. If selected, these young people enter our full-time, paid, on-the-job training programme where they learn human-centred design, Agile, and specialise in a scarce tech and creative skill, including:
Included in the programme is 3 months of work experience at a leading employer. We continue to support our alumni to reach their full potential through Umuzi Plug, our talent recruitment offering.
Umuzi offers a range of services
We leverage our unique access to tech and creative talent to provide a range of services. We’re continuously experimenting with new ways to increase our impact across our ecosystem of products.
High-value skills development:
We identify high-value career paths, and support young people to access them through free online learning, paid learnerships and internships, and work experience at top employers. We also partner with leading employers to offer employed learnerships and acreditted short-courses.
Talent recruitment:
Umuzi Plug places our recent graduates in high-value roles, at top employers. We also keep in touch with our alumni, and support them to manage their careers, linking them to high-value mid- and senior-level opportunities at our partner employers.
Consulting / Advisory:
Umuzi supports our employer and client partners to be more human-centred and Agile with our consulting / advisory professionals services.
Production Services:
UmuziCreates offers clients Production Services and access to Umuzi’s unique, local Stock Library. Our agency is staffed by Umuzi alumni who use their lived experience to help our clients tell authentic stories.
Management Team:
Umuzi’s management team works behind the scenes to ensure we have an inspiring operating environment that resonates with who we are as an organisation and continues to evolve and grow with us.