APPROPRIATELY USED TECHNOLOGY LOOKS TO REDUCE UNEMPLOYMENT ACROSS AFRICA

Personalised learning, mobile-based learning and upskilling of the current workforce are some of the opportunities identified as a means to reduce unemployment across Africa.
This insight was made by Arpit Badjatya, a visiting edupreneur, who spent this last week visiting institutions of higher learning and engaging with academics and institutional leadership.
“Personalised learning that tracks the unique learning path of the individual and takes cognizance of personal learning styles and course curriculum design, are two of the methods of ensuring a student attains the goal of upskilling and education. Not all students are suited to traditional university education and technology can supplement the role of institutions, achieving the same goal – an educated population that’s ready for employment,” said Badjatya.
South Africa has the second highest number of mobile phone users on the continent after Nigeria, with what is believed to be 78% of the population using mobile devices.
“With over 40 million unique subscribers, mobile-based learning seems an obvious solution. With the device in the hands of the person to be upskilled, learning can be personalized and the rapid development of cutting edge apps makes this possible,” added Badjatya.

Upskilling the current workforce is a key and accessible method to reduce the high unemployment rate in developing countries. According to Badjatya, he frequently meets leaders who claim to have plenty of jobs, but not the correctly trained people to fill those jobs, and unemployed people who claim if they were trained they would be employable.
“Technology is a key for skills development course delivery,” he emphasised. Badjatya recently completed a tour of South Africa, visiting some of the country’s ivy league universities, colleges and school groups presenting Academia ERP. This software is the brainchild of Badjatya and a team of 150 software designers in India, and is currently used by 175 higher education institutions, mainly in the Middle East, India and Africa.
According to Badjatya, Academia ERP brings efficiency to create harmony in the education ecosystem.
Academia ERP is cutting edge software that incorporates the complete ecosystem of any higher education institution, irrelevant of the number of students, campuses.
“We treat the student as a customer and the software supports the lifecycle of the student from marketing recruitment through to graduation including registration, fees, timetabling, courses, exams, student communication, hostels and alumni.
“In our experience, although students are the client of the institution, many do not focus on client satisfaction. When developing Academia, we set the student at the centre of the system and asked how best to treat the student as a client. We have focused on functionality, self-service features, feedback and a dedicated portal and app.
Having studied at the top institutions in the United States, Badjatya saw an opportunity to develop cutting edge higher education software relevant to emerging economies, matched to the local context.
It is Badjatya’s philosophy to always enter a new market with a local partner: “Eiffel Corp, leaders in education technology in the African continent is an obvious partner for us.”
Prepared by Go4Word on behalf of Eiffel Corp. For further information contact Kim Barty – kim.barty@go4word.co.za

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(Eiffel Corp — June 23, 2016) —