Sparc bridging ICT gap among girls

An African company that provides ICT solution trains 32 girls in a two days training workshop held in Blantyre.

The training is offered to those who have just finished secondary school.

Speaking to Chief Executive Officer Wisely Phiri said the training was aimed to help girls with ICT skills as well as career mentorship in ICT.

“We have noticed that science careers including ICT have been male dominated hence this is our contribution to motivate girls to join the ICT career and teach them how they can navigate in this male dominated career”.

“We are planning to conduct these free training in all places where we have our offices. So those in Lilongwe , Lusaka, Kitwe and Kigali should look out for their turn as we will be conducting similar trainings in these locations soon, ” Phiri said.

Sparc was established to bridge the gap on enterprise ICT in Africa.

“We had noticed then that there were less skills on enterprise ICT in Africa hence companies would relay on support from engineers from other countries. We have achieved alot to change the mindset by doing things with local skills,”

“In the course of our business we have noticed that there are very few ladies in the ICT field. Through our Sparc Educational services we decided to intervine to again bridge this gap so that we can motivate more ladies to join ICT sector and contribute to the digital economy,”

He added that they have noticed the exception achievements from few ladies that venture into ICT, and they believe if they can have more ladies in ICT they can have a bigger push for economic activities.

This is the second round of ICT training for girls, the next stop is Rwanda and Zambia and eventually other African countries as well.

A total of 252 girls applied for training but only 32 selected to attend the two days training workshop.

Statistics show there are 7 Million people that are working in ICT sector and only 30 percent are women.

These trainings are one way which will encourage more girls to join the career through role modelling and hands on training.

The girls who were eligible to attend were those who wrote MSCE/IGCSE in year 2022.

At the end of the training participants received certificates of achievement.

COMPANY BACKGROUND

SPARC SYSTEMS LIMITED is an African Company that provides ICT solutions .It is originally from Malawi operating in Rwanda and Zambia .It has provided IT solutions to enterprises and government institutions in 10 countries .

SPARC is an employer in the ICT sector with more than 100 employers and the gender gap is felt.