What started as training programme transformed into platform that helps graduants find jobs

What started as a training programme has transformed into a platform that helps graduants find jobs

Evolution of technology comes with need of digital skills that make individuals and companies adjust to the ever-changing space. It is against this background that Digify saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. 

Digify, which specialises in solutions for stand-alone digital and integrated marketing campaigns for mobile, web and broadcast applications, aims to create as many jobs in the digital space as they can.  

The brainchild of Gavin Deale was started in earnest in 2011 after he saw the success of  teenagers, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds, taking charge of their narrative. 

Deale had been running a project in South London, UK, called Live Magazine since 2002 created by teenagers. It gave young people from deprived communities a voice to speak to their mates on issues affecting them. 

Separate programme

 “They produced the content. We mentored them on how to write, edit and publish. At the beginning, our main intent was for it to just be a communications piece, but by accident we created this training programme because we realised participants were using their experience to get jobs. We were not educators or teachers, we were just media people,” explains Deale. Live  Magazine grew to became a real success in London. 

In 2011, he moved to South Africa to set up the programme and while placing graduates for jobs in various organisations they received feedback from other people who also wanted to acquire digital skills. This resulted in establishing a separate programme known as Digify Africa, which focuses on assisting graduands find employment. 

“We follow the demand for skills and what the market is demanding for in terms of skills because otherwise you can be training a lot of people and then there are no opportunities in the end,” he says. For instance, one of the challenges they faced in South Africa is that the standard of basic education is poor, especially if you come from an under-priviledged family. 

“This means the person is starting at a place of disadvantage, but the fourth industrial revolution gives an opportunity to tackle inequality. However, the danger is that it might accelerate it. So, we have to make sure we take this to the people who are less connected,” says Deale.

Their success in South Africa has resulted in many youths being employed in different categories of digital marketing and many others running their own micro agencies and supporting small businesses. 

Last year, Digify partnered with Facebook to run an eight-week boot camp on digital skills in Kenya known as Digify Pro. It was the first cohort to graduate and participants underwent an intense programme in which their digital strength was developed. “It has 20 participants passionate about digital skills and who see the possibility of a career in digital marketing and are also creative,” says Celestine Okpere, project lead for Digify Africa. 

The programme is also running in Nigeria, where 100 participants have graduated in Lagos and Abuja. They expanded the programme to Nairobi since it works well in big urban centres where most graduates will find employment. 

“The objective was that by the time the participants finish the programme, they can be employed as a digital strategists, or in an ad agency depending on the skills path they have chosen. Some have chosen the coded creation space, others media buying, strategicplanning depending on their strength. During the course, we identified where people are strong at and where they need to develop more incase they have a quality towards that,” she adds.

Remote working

This year, Digify Africa aims to increase impact and deliver programmes that train small and medium entreprises or high school students on how to be safe online. There are plans to scale the programme with the next intake since the currrent 20 students is just to little considering the kind of youth unemployment issue today.  “That’s why weve been in a lot of partnership talks with the Information and Comunication Technology Authority. For the next cohort, we believe in using social media strongly to advertise because we are digital,” she explains.

They are also plans to add refugees into the programme since its challenging for them to find jobs. 

“Refugees are part of the gig economy, which entails people working from where they are regardless of their qualification. We want to do this in Kenya and South Africa because of the large percentage of refugees,” concludes Okpere.