The objective of the ICAN Centre is to provide access to information, empower the community through digital skills, expose broadband technology to the community and stimulate creativity and innovation in a local community. The boost in Entrepreneurship and support to SMME’s will occur through access to information and empower business owners through entrepreneurship programmes at the ICAN Centre. All programming will improve skills, employment development, grow innovation, stimulate creativity, supplement motivation for young people in schools, support tertiary students to complete studies and alleviate poverty issues in the community.
What skills and resources were you able to draw from the community for this project?
The I-CAN Project has a Programming Office managed by two facilitators. These facilitators were recruited from the local community. The I-CAN Centre obtained its resources from donor funding such as the Department of Economic Development and Tourism. Additional Training was included at Inception Phase where staff were trained by UWC in Instructional Design. The Executive Director has expertise in Education, Entrepreneurship and IT. These fields supplement the driving force of the I-CAN Project.
The challenges
We aim to address the digital divide and unemployment that exist in communities through access to internet and relevant skills programmes that reduces unemployment. In addition, these two issues are also addressed with support of partnerships that are employment accelerators.
Addressing the challenges
Access to internet on a daily basis provides citizens opportunities to research for jobs online through portals. Free training is offered to address the digital divide and enable citizens to adopt a digital lifestyle, such as having an email address and a Social Media account. With funding from government and various donors the project aims to address the digital divide to offer unique skills programmes to stimulate the IT sector. Certifications issued to citizens create a value-driven community, whereby citizens feel empowered and job-ready for markets.
The achievements
The I-CAN centre has achieved a number of successful projects, including training women in ICT entrepreneurship, presenting financial independence workshops, Google training for Non-Profit Organisations, job readiness skilling, I-Can entrepreneurship training, gaming tournaments, I-Can web hackathons, Microsoft Office Specialist competitions and I-Can winter and spring school projects. A total of 7 623 people were trained between September 2015 and March 2019, in free, paid and subsidised courses. During this same period a total of 5 898 free courses, projects and workshops were conducted.
Johannesburg, South Africa