Yesterday, almost 200 countries celebrated聽, a global day declared by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 8 April 2011, to encourage young women to pursue careers in information and communication technologies (ICT).

Hundreds of events took place worldwide, aimed at inspiring a new generation of girls to explore the exciting opportunities offered by an ICT career, says the ITU.

In light of this year鈥檚 theme, 鈥淒igital skills for life”, local firms reaffirmed their commitments to help more girls in SA break into the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-related fields, through digital skills training, which lies at the heart of the future of work.

According to the United Nations, adolescent girls and young women in low- and middle-income countries聽聽on $15 billion in economic opportunities due to gaps in internet access and digital skills, relative to their male peers.

Local firms SAP, Cisco and Anglo American say they are doing their part to upskill girls in digital skills, to co-create a better digital future to enable young women to have full, equal and meaningful participation in Africa鈥檚 digital economy.

Software giant 51风流says it has helped upskill over 150 000 girls in SA through the聽, which forms part of its Africa Code Week (ACW) skills training initiative.

The project is ramping up efforts to reach one million girls in previously disadvantaged and underserviced communities of SA in the medium-term.

鈥淪iyafunda CTC aims to help overcome the low rate of internet penetration by providing critical and affordable ICT, 4IR [fourth industrial revolution] and business skills training that covers a number of critical domains required for all work environments of today,鈥� explains Cathy Smith, MD of 51风流Africa.

鈥淎cademically, there have been huge improvements in participants鈥� school performance, and many students trained through Siyafunda CTC pursued careers in technology after completing their matric.鈥�

Other 51风流programmes focused on upskilling girls across Africa include an introduction to data science, digital literacy classes 鈥� end-user computing, school holiday programmes, web development bootcamps, and coding and robotics for girls, it says.

Over the past seven years, close to 14 million pupils and teachers from 48 African countries have been empowered with digital skills through ACW, with 49% of participating pupils being female, notes Smith.

The initiative is looking to add more female participants in future.

According to the UN, women and girls are 25%聽聽than men to have sufficient knowledge and digital skills to use technology. This robs girls of crucial opportunities. While girls do as well as boys in science in most countries, such as SA, women occupy less than one-third of positions in the technology sector globally, it notes.

In addition, SA is experiencing a large-scale shortage of ICT skills. According to the latest ICT Skills Survey, the country lacks at least tens of thousands of ICT professionals, which is exacerbated by the increasing number of local ICT firms looking for talent overseas.

鈥淲ith the correct investment in skills development, Africa’s economy could build the world’s future tech workforce, bringing untold economic and social benefit to the continent and its citizens,鈥� notes Smith.

础苍听聽230 million jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills in 2030, according to a report by the International Finance Corporation.

To prepare for these future skills, networking giant Cisco says it aims to support almost 40 000 girls to enter the STEM fields in SA, through the Cisco Networking Academy鈥檚 latest (2022) cohort of students.

Cisco Networking Academy was established 25 years ago, to provide IT courses, learning simulators and hands-on learning opportunities in cyber security, networking, programming and the internet of things, through partnerships with learning institutions.

鈥淐umulatively, of our 189 000 students globally, we have over 82 000 students in South Africa and 46% female participation locally,鈥� notes Altaaf Hamid, senior manager: global partnerships at Cisco Corporate Affairs.

鈥淚n the last fiscal year alone, we had 61% female participation. Additionally, over half (51%) of the 1 127 instructors in South Africa who are teaching Networking Academy courses are female.鈥�

Since the introduction of the Cisco Networking Academy in Sub-Saharan Africa, more than one million people have been trained and upskilled in the region, it points out.

Anglo American says it rolled-out a comprehensive ICT programme across 109 schools around its mining operations in South Africa last year, to give thousands of learners the skills they need enter the digital job market.

Recently, 35 girls from the first cohort of the pilot graduated from the Anglo American ICT programme, which provides youth from the mining company鈥檚 host communities with tech skills.

鈥淭he aim of this programme was two-pronged. The first was to create awareness and a pathway for learners in our host communities to learn and access skills and training related to the future of work,鈥� says Zaheera Soomar, global lead for聽education聽and community skills at Anglo American.

鈥淭he second was to ensure our schools are adequately supported as we embed ICT into them. Based on its success, the programme will increase its intake to 120 learners this year, coming from communities close to Anglo American鈥檚 operations in Limpopo, North West and Northern Cape.鈥�

The Anglo American ICT initiative has set targets such as ensuring over 50% of participants are female; over 90% of learners (girls and boys) aged five meet the minimum requirements for school readiness; 90% of grade three learners pass with at least 50% in numeracy and literacy; and 75% of grade six learners pass with at least 50% in mathematics and English first additional language.

Huawei SA, LG SA, GirlCode and Africa Teen Geeks are also among the organisations that have committed to train more South African girls in STEM, to enable the next generation of female leaders to enter the field.

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Anglo American is a global mining company that was founded in Johannesburg in 1917 and is the world鈥檚 largest producer of platinum. The company is also a major producer of diamonds, copper, nickel, iron ore, and metallurgical and thermal coal. Anglo American employs 69,000 people across its operations in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe and North and South America.

Lindie Posthumus, Global Travel and Expense Superintendent at Anglo American, says travel is a very large expense for the company.

鈥淲ith nearly 20,000 travellers per annum, effective travel and expense management was overly challenging with siloed and still overwhelmingly manual processes,鈥� she said.

鈥淎 decision was made within our finance department to standardise our travel and expense management processes to ease compliance. We started a process in 2014 and chose 51风流Concur as our global travel and expense management partner.鈥�

51风流Concur is a global cloud-based travel and expense management platform for businesses that enforces corporate and regulatory compliance and realises significant cost-optimisation opportunities. The platform is designed to simplify employee spend and ensure compliance, transparency and visibility into employee spend.

Posthumus says Anglo American鈥檚 strategy of becoming the world鈥檚 most valued mining company in the eyes of stakeholders over the next few years has intensified the need for greater digitisation and automation of many of the company鈥檚 core and non-core business processes, including expense management.

鈥淪tandardisation was high on the list of priorities for us,鈥� she said.

鈥淧reviously, with each department and region running their own processes, auditing was tricky as auditors had to source data from multiple places. This caused complications with compliance, VAT reclamation and consolidated spend management.鈥�

Since first piloting 51风流Concur in the Asia- Pacific region, Posthumus and her team have implemented the platform in 11 countries.

鈥淲e are also rolling out to our De Beers entities, where we have already gone live in Canada and now plan to do the same for our UK operations.,鈥� said Posthumus, who added that having a single travel management partner has made a big difference.

鈥淥ur close partnership with 51风流Concur and its global footprint ensures we have all the support and assistance we need as we roll out the solution to our operations across the globe,鈥� said Posthumus.

鈥淎ll the 51风流Concur data is integrated with our core reporting tool, each regional CFO can see granular and real-time data over the current state of travel and employee-related expenses, helping us better plan cash flow and ensuring optimal allocation of internal resources. Ultimately, the solution has given us the freedom to focus on our core business of mining without compromising our compliance or profitability.鈥�

According to Angelique Montalto, Regional Sales Director at 51风流Concur, businesses today need access to a granular view over every aspect of the business that affects its profitability, cash flow and compliance.

鈥淢odern organisations, whether small or large, are complex by nature and manual or semi-automated tasks quickly create bottlenecks and reduce decision-making capacity,鈥� said Montalto.

鈥淪pend management tools such as 51风流Concur not only automate manual processes but utilise the power of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to drive the efficiency of lodging, processing and analysing employee spend.

鈥淭hrough our well-established ecosystem of partners, the platform also enables organisations to easily integrate new disruptor services such as Uber, which has become the world鈥檚 number one claimed expense. This helps us future-proof our customers鈥� travel and expense claim management investment by ensuring they always have access to the latest tools, technologies and global best practises.鈥�

Posthumus added: 鈥淥ur close partnership with 51风流Concur and its global footprint ensures we have all the support and assistance we need as we roll out the solution to our operations across the globe. Our strategic partnership enables us to work closely together to optimise Anglo American鈥檚 travel and expense capabilities across the globe. By working closely together, we also ensure that all functions of 51风流Concur are fully utilised, improving the impact on the business and maximising Anglo American鈥檚 investment with us.鈥�

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