Safaricom has unveiled a programme to empower and train employees who are looking to shift to new digital careers.
In the first phase that began early this year, the telco has already trained 60 of its staff and placed them in new roles.
Touted as an industry first, the initiative is also helping the company bridge a shortage of talent as it seeks to bridge a customer shift to increasingly digital lifestyles.
This digital transformation has been behind the growth of demand for data scientists, data analysts, and new-age programming experts amongst other roles.
“Safaricom operates in a fast paced environment where technology is ever changing. Recent advances have automated sections of our network meaning that certain careers will soon no longer be necessary. At the same time, these changes are driving demand for new skills where there is a shortage of talent in the market,” said Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph.
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He added: “The Digital Academy is a human resource innovation that has enabled us to both empower our staff with new skills and to have the right mix of talent based on our customer needs.”
The academy offered a six-month full-time course in five programs including Technology Automation, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Data Science, Emerging Network Technologies and Mobile Application Development.
The first three months were classroom-based with the last three seeing the employees practically apply their new skills in developing new workplace innovations.
Among the tools that the employees have developed during the training is a data revenue analysis and prediction tool, and a home fibre customer satisfaction analysis solution.
All 60 employees remained under employment for the duration of the programme.
Following the success of the first phase, the company plans to collaborate with local and global players to roll out the training to more of its staff in coming months.
Safaricom has also deployed a digital learning platform that will provide on-the-job training in more than 10,000 courses to staff.
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