The City of Joburg today held an induction ceremony for the first 250 digital interns of the 1000 it plans to train this year under its J.E.D.I (Joburg educating digital interns) programme to enable them to become employable or start SMMEs. The group was selected from a group of 600 applicants who motivated why they should be selected via online platforms, including Twitter and Facebook.
J.E.D.I was launched in February this year. The successful interns will be able to choose between courses on Network Engineering, Web Development or Fibre Engineering.
Entrepreneurs selected for the challenge will participate in a month long process, run by Seed Academy, consisting of intensive business training, technical hackathons and a demo day where the winners will be required to demonstrate their business value proposition.
Once selected, award winners will receive membership the digital innovation hub plus technical support and mentorship. The final award winners will also receive one year free hosting credit for their business applications from IBM.
Lara Rosmarin, CEO of Seed Academy, says that the opportunity for people to start their own businesses and employ additional people is integral to South Africa’s growth.
“We believe that entrepreneurship is going to shape this country and we’ve seen exceptional ideas put forward in the #Hack.Jozi Challenge. We are so excited to help empower entrepreneurs through this process to think laterally, ignite their magic and move their business ideas to the next level.”
