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Umuzi Academy

Umuzi works with top employers to support young people to access high-value tech and creative careers. Umuzi Academy offers free one-year full-time paid learnerships in coding, data, and design in Johannesburg. The program teaches a variety of skills including JavaScript, Node,js, Python, SQL, and UX/UI design.

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:

- Data Science & Data Engineering
- Web Development
- UX Strategy
- UI Design and Copywriting
- Multimedia

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.