Talent Desert: Mitigating the impact of the JAPA Syndrome.

Introduction

In 2022 more African students were awarded F-1 visas to study in the US than ever before, the UK also recorded a 223% surge in student visas.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of African talent are keen to migrate to Western countries for greener pastures, this is evident by the dramatic increase in the number of visa applications to these countries. The residual impact of talent drain on businesses across the continent is ominous.

97% of businesses across Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa reported a tech skill shortage in 2023 with more specialized skills such as Cloud Computing, Data Analytics, and Cybersecurity already having a huge undersupply worldwide.

Understanding the Landscape:

As technology advances, so will the skills required to operate it.

Talent is very crucial for development and innovation and when there is a mismatch between the business needs and the available skills, growth is stunted. This introduces continuous delays in business processes and performance due to talent turnover that affects both reputation and revenue.

CIL Perspective:

The challenge of unskilled or under-skilled workers needs to be addressed sustainably

The escalating financial and temporal investments in recruitment underscore the need for a more effective strategy in addressing the rising talent desert. Prolonged reliance on a perpetual recruitment cycle is suboptimal for businesses of any scale in the long run. At CIL, our solution to counteract high employee turnover rates involves the continuous cultivation of a robust talent pipeline, ensuring a perpetual readiness of talents to meet our technical requirements.

CIL Academy Solution

CIL Academy’s primary objective is to build a sustainable talent pipeline with technology competence

At CIL Academy, we maintain a pool of skilled talents, primed not only for seamless integration within our organization but also readily available to meet the demands of other organizations. We offer comprehensive training and actual work experience for tech enthusiasts at various proficiency levels and across diverse fields. Our flagship Zero to Techie (ZTT) program enables us to create world-class competency from a wide pool of unskilled or under-skilled resources. We refresh our workforce continuously from the academy and actively collaborate with other organizations, to provide custom programs tailored to meet their unique needs.

Conclusion

Africa’s tech landscape has significant potential, even as it grapples with socio-economic challenges that make it difficult to do business. The talent drain challenges are not particularly easy for businesses to address. The continent, however, still has the largest and growing workforce population in the world. Human capital can be harnessed with the right strategy and execution. CIL Academy is a sustainable solution, harnessing raw talent and nurturing pipelines for business. We aim to continue to contribute to the enduring success and growth of the African tech ecosystem.