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Disability Career 365 With South Africa’s unemployment rate sitting at 29% finding a job can be a tough task, this task becomes even more challenging for the 7.5 percent (2,870,130 people) of the population living with some form of disability.    With the above in mind, Deaf internship students Siyanda Kopolo and Sieshane Perumal decided to create an employment website that caters specifically for disabled jobseekers and companies looking to hire disables individuals.   The website, titled Disability Career 365, works the same way as any other employment website. “Companies looking for disabled employees can share their job vacancies and the requirements necessary, while disabled jobseekers can create a personal profile and upload their resume. Jobseekers can then apply for the available jobs and companies can contact the potential employees that they feel would be a good fit for their company” Kopolo explains.   “Companies often hire disabled people for the sake of BEE compliance but a lot of times they do not understand the different types of disabilities out there and the fact that people with certain disabilities are better suited to certain jobs,” Kopolo shares. In order to counter this issue, Disability Career 365 also includes information about the different types of disabilities, which jobs are suited to people with these disabilities and the work environments necessary to accommodate these individuals.     “A website like this will not only assist members of the disabled community to find work but it will also gather useful data regarding which types of disabilities get preference by companies during the selection process. This kind of data could help uncover biases within the job market and once these are uncovered South Africa can work towards dismantling them,” Tshepo Mohale, a software developer at Botlhale Village adds.  “We are just trying to level the playing field in any way we can,” Kopolo concludes.   Keep an eye on our various social media channels where we will be announcing the official website launch! 

Deaf Information Hub Deaf Information Hub is a website designed to provide a number of useful resources to hearing parents with children with hearing loss and individuals who suddenly lose their hearing. It is being created by Deaf internship students Chezney van Groeningen, Bongumusa Mlaba and Jolin Jafta. “There are a lot of resources for the Deaf available on the internet but hardly any of these resources are specifically South African. We created this website to provide relevant resources to South Africans who need them,” Groeningen explains. When hearing is all you have ever known, losing this sense suddenly can be very difficult and confusing. People who suffer from sudden hearing loss often do not know where to start looking for resources to assist them. The same applies to hearing parents with Deaf children. According to the NIDCD, more than 90% of Deaf children are born to hearing parents. These parents usually have no prior experience with deafness or hearing loss and yet in a very short time they need to make serious, often life-altering choices for their child. “Hearing parents with Deaf children have the biggest influence on them but a lot of times hearing parents struggle to have a relationship with their child because they do not know how to assist or interact with them. These parents need access to impartial information and a supportive community, our website provides this” Groeningen says. Deaf Information Hub makes a number of valuable resources available. These resources include a directory of the schools for the Deaf in each province in South Africa, as well as a Deaf organization directory. The website also includes a section that outlines the causes of deafness, a sign language guide, a Deaf shop that provides information on where to purchase assistive devices like hearing aids or alarm clocks for the Deaf, and a section that celebrates the achievements of members of the Deaf community. “We thought it was important to include the achievements section to show Deaf people and the rest of the world that being Deaf does not have to affect your goals, Deaf people are capable of great things,” Groeningen explains. In addition to the above, the website also provides links to two other websites created by Deaf internship students at Belgium Campus. These website are DeafHUB, a website that focusses on education and assisting Deaf learners, and Disability Career 365, an employment website specifically designed for disabled jobseekers and organisations looking to hire disabled employees. Groeningen, Mlaba and Jafta are also working on a mobile app to make the resources on their website more accessible. “These days more people access information using their mobile phones which is why we decided to create a mobile application. We have already started learning the mobile programming language,” Groeningen shares. Keep an eye on our various social media channels to stay up to date about the mobile app and the official website launch!

DeafHUB Belgium Campus iTversity Deaf internship students Violen Moonee, Yazeed Moosa and Norman Themba, are creating a website to assist members of the Deaf community as well as hearing individuals with Deaf people in their lives. The website, titled DeafHUB, mainly focusses on education and assisting Deaf learners. “We all went to a school for the Deaf and so we have personal experiences with what the issues are in schools like this, which is why we created this website,” Moonee says as he navigates through the site. Deaf and hard-of-hearing learners make up 5% of the school population in South Africa. According to the Human Sciences Research Council, the school attendance of these learners drops significantly between their early and late school years. “I know a lot of Deaf people who leave school at grade 9 because many of the teachers in the schools for the Deaf are not fluent in sign language, which makes it very difficult for Deaf students to perform well,” comments Moonee with concern. “Education is very important. Many Deaf people get frustrated and give up. They leave school without grade 12 and are left unable to find a job. They end up settling for a substandard life surviving of the disability grant provided by the government,” adds Tshepo Mohale, a software developer at Botlhale Village. These challenges do not end in the school environment. Hearing parents to Deaf children are often reluctant to learn sign language, whether it be because they are in denial or because their busy schedule makes it very difficult to. This not only affects their relationship with their child but also their ability to help with homework which can further hinder their child’s academic progress. “If you are unable to properly grasp the content in school and you do not have a good support system at home, how can you be expected to make something of yourself?” Moonee comments. Moonee, Moosa and Themba created their website with the above issues in mind. The website provides video lessons for maths, English and IT directed at secondary and high school learners, the lessons are all given in SASL. “We chose to focus on these subjects as we find that Deaf people tend to struggle with Maths and English, but there is always the possibility to add more subjects in the future should the need arise,” Moone shares. The internship group, all fluent in SASL, are currently presenting the classes but expressed that should the pilot be a success, they would like to get individuals who are both fluent in SASL and fully versed in the subject matter to present. In addition to the above, the website also contains a life skills section. This section provides important information and vocabulary pertaining to the requirements, as well as the necessary steps for everyday processes that hearing people take for granted but that Deaf people can find quite challenging. These processes include things like applying for a loan at the bank or applying for a learners licence at the traffic department. “Going to places like this is often a difficult and frustrating process for Deaf people because communication is always an issue and a lot of times we may not understand the vocabulary being used or what the requirements are. Our hope is that our website makes these processes easier for Deaf people and also assists Deaf learners and their parents” Moone concludes.

Global Partnerships Promoting Global Solutions and Inclusivity Belgium Campus iTversity and Pennsylvania State University have been working together since 2015 to promote global-thinking and intercultural awareness amongst students. Belgium Campus students work with students from Penn State University’s mechanical and electrical engineering faculties on joint industry innovation projects. These projects prepare students to enter the industry with ease and also provide them with a global perspective, allowing them to assimilate into the globalised world we live in and equipping them to tackle the challenges that come with it. This Women’s Month, we introduce you to two of the phenomenal women at Penn State University who help make this collaboration possible. These women are Dr. Meg Handley, Associate Director for Engineering Leadership Outreach and Dr. Dena Lang, Associate Director of the Engineering Leadership Research Program.

Like-Minded Partnerships Belgium Campus strives to provide equal opportunities for all, with a specific focus on females and individuals with disabilities. We actively work with a number of major corporates to provide as many opportunities to our students as possible, both before and after graduation. These opportunities are in the form of bursaries, internships and job placements. We endeavour to form partnerships with companies that share similar values as us in order to work towards the same goal. One such company is Liberty, whom we have a longstanding relationship with. Liberty provides bursary support and meaningful work related projects to female students and students with disabilities in an effort to prepare them for the workplace. “Liberty values the importance of investing in youth, the future of our nation. We understand the potential of the girl child and aspire to make a difference in her life along with all the communities that we serve,” explains Leatitia Thoresson, Group Human Resource Operations Services Divisional Director at Liberty. In addition to the above, Liberty has and continues to recruit a number of our students post-graduation. We are excited to continue to build on this relationship and we are thrilled that they will be one of the companies joining us at our last Recruitment Day this Friday.

Women’s Month: Alumna: Fay Mpata Fay Mpata graduated from Belgium Campus iTversity with a Bachelor of Computing degree in 2016. She is currently working as a front-end developer at Twipe Digital Publishing, a Belgian technology company specialising in state-of-the-art digital publishing and analytics. We took some time to catch up with her. 1. Why did you choose to pursue a career in the IT field?Because of its versatility. Nowadays we can find IT branches (programming, data science, data analysis etc.) in almost all industries. This is an advantage for us as we can be useful anywhere, by providing solutions in diverse industries (food, fashion, music, medical, media etc.) while at the same time gaining knowledge in these different fields. 2. What is your fondest memory of your time at Belgium Campus?When I was in 1st year I was among the few students who got high marks for the first Programming 100 test. The test was about flowchart and according to the lecturer, being able to write a correct flowchart is important to be a good programmer. For me, who had never programmed anything before, coming to Belgium Campus and passing that test gave me the confidence that I could make it. 3. What has your experience at Twipe Digital Publishing been like so far?My experience at Twipe has been very exciting so far. Belgium Campus gave me a solid foundation to start my career and Twipe is giving me the tools to build on that foundation. I started as an HTML, Javascript and CSS developer and today I am doing Android and a little bit of iOS development. 4. What do you enjoy most about your job?Twipe counts among its client big European newspapers. As a front-end developer, my work is seen by thousands of people all over Europe on a daily basis. 5. What is your opinion on the role of women in IT?The ultimate purpose of IT in any industry is to support core processes, by providing solutions that enhance productivity. Men and women are different yet complementary. Diversity of thinking and ideas often result in better solutions. Women are more than welcome in IT as more and more women are becoming consumers of this technology. 6. Are there any women in IT who inspire you?I am inspired by all the women who had the courage to enter the industry before me and who made it accessible, and by all the women who fight against gender discrimination in the industry so that our work is given the same value as work produced by men. 7. What advice would you give to young women considering a career in IT?Follow your passion; do not be intimidated by the fact that you might be the only woman on the team. During my internship at Siemens and when I first started at Twipe I was the only woman developer but I didn’t let that intimidate me. Also, they should know that working in the IT industry is very demanding. Technologies evolve at high speed, therefore, to remain competitive in the job market you need to constantly learn and be aware of new technologies. 8. What are your goals for the future?I am from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and during my studies there was no IT course available to me. One of my future goals is to use the knowledge and expertise I am gaining abroad, to introduce young Congolese to IT. IT is playing a big role in the development of countries and I think that people, especially women, should be introduced to it at a young age so that they aware that it is a great career path with many opportunities.

Women’s Month: Alumna: Kristél Hartmann Kristél Hartmann is currently working as a practice principle at RedScreen, a consulting company which works in the BI field. She graduated from Belgium Campus in 2018 with a Bachelor of Computing degree. We spent some time getting up to speed with her. 1. Why did you choose to pursue a career in the IT field?I wanted to be part of the small group of women who pursue their dream of being a young professional in a so called ‘difficult’ field. I dream of working until no one asks what my name is – I am still working on this dream. 2. Do you feel that Belgium Campus sufficiently equipped you to enter industry?Belgium Campus gave me a solid base to build on and eventually excel with. I had enough knowledge to enter a scary career and improve my knowledge and skills. 3. What is your fondest memory of your time at Belgium Campus?The moment we found out that our Penn State project won the Student Research and Design Competition, sponsored by the RERC on AAC: https://rerc-aac.psu.edu/2016-winner-of-student-research-and-design-competition/ 4. What has your experience at RedScreen been like so far?I have been absolutely blessed here. I have been promoted several times until receiving my own team / little practice to take care of. Hard work pays off at RedScreen and you get recognised for what you accomplish. I have gone on multiple training courses and I have been certified by some of our partner companies. 5. What has your experience as a woman in the IT field been like so far?I have had bad experiences where I was told that they don’t want a young woman doing the work. That just made me stronger as a woman, it made me work harder! There are tough times and there are great times. Being a woman in the IT industry, and being good at what I do, I am exceptionally proud of myself and my colleges for making it this far. 6. What advice would you give to young women considering a career in IT?If IT is your dream, being a woman shouldn’t stop you from pursuing it! Go for it, grab it with both hands and power dress! Put on red lipstick and high heels to celebrate your womanhood and make a powerful statement. Be you and go for it! 7. What are your goals for the future?My goal is to become a director at the company where I currently work. I believe that I have the capability to be part of the directors’ team – one day…

Women’s Month: Alumna: Kholofelo Matimatjatji Kholofelo Matimatjatji graduated from Belgium Campus iTversity in 2015 with a Bachelor of Computing degree. She is currently a senior business analyst team lead as Discovery Invest as well as the managing director at a start-up company called Puno MGT. We touched base with her to find out about her current positions, as well as her experience as a woman in the IT field. 1. Why did you choose to pursue a career in the IT field?I have always found the dynamic nature of the IT industry fascinating and thrilling. 2. What has your experience as a woman in the IT field been like so far?I appreciate my femininity more in this male-dominated industry. As a female leader my leadership approach is more nurturing and people centric, underpinned by my own values of sound judgement and business astuteness. This sets me apart from my male counterparts who equally have their own unique styles of interaction and leadership. The IT field is an exciting space to be in, particularly in this time of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Gender-neutral, brilliant ideas are mushrooming every other day that are changing the face of technology and extensively exploring our capabilities as the human race. It’s amazing and I’m fascinated to see these developments and be involved, at times pioneering these value propositions. My inputs are relevant and appreciated, particularly in the environment I work in. Women are appreciated and given an equal opportunity to contribute as well as lead. 3. What do you enjoy most about your job?Solving problems excites me just as much as people do. I get to discover new solutions by interacting with different faces walking through the corridors of Discovery each day. Without these interactions, challenges would not exist and subsequently the solutions wouldn’t either. The same can be said about the entrepreneurs that seek out our management consulting services. Our impact ranges from minor operations optimization to long term strategy development, all of which leave me with an immutable sense of fulfilment seeing dreams live beyond today. 4. Tell us a bit about Puno MGT.Our core business objective is to serve SMEs. The motive for starting up the business was seeing how home-grown township businesses in South Africa never grow beyond the knowledge and technical expertise of the founder. Through extensive observation and pattern triangulation, I attributed this to the lack of basic business administration skills and strategic planning. These businesses have an abundance of passion and expertise but are stuck in a perpetual survivalist mode. Remedying this conundrum was as simple as providing basic business administration services as well implementing optimizations to their processes, which was what I did daily as a business analyst. I felt it was my responsibility to make myself available to help these visionaries get to where they want to be, it is my way of giving back to the community. 5. Do you feel that Belgium Campus sufficiently equipped you to enter industry?I have always joked with colleagues that Belgium Campus emulates an IT boot camp. I got to develop an exceptional work ethic that stressed the value of quality work as well as respecting deadlines and commitments. These are core and essential skills necessary in the work environment. 6. What is your fondest memory of your time at Belgium Campus?At the risk of sounding cheesy, I would have to say the people. Belgium Campus always felt like home, from residence life to academic. There was never a shortage of helping hands or people to bounce a ridiculous hypothesis off, whether it was a random LAN gaming binge or computing an ORS algorithm. Someone, somewhere would always be willing to help and that’s something that has stayed with me to this day. 7. What are your goals for the future?I want to show young people the value of participating and engaging in the asset and wealth management industry. I want to make the industry accessible and current for young people, not only for sustainability purposes, but also to ensure that cyclic generational poverty is a thing of the past for the young South African. I am the executive board member for my own enterprise but it is only a matter of time until I make it onto other influential boards of multinational corporations, actively seeking better lives for people and changing the world for generations to come.

Women’s Month: Internship Students At Belgium Campus we recognise the importance of looking beyond the qualification, which is why we assist our students to find internships at top IT companies. This is made possible because of our longstanding relationship with a number of national and international companies in the field. These companies have hired our students in the past and are thus aware of the standard at which our students perform. It is also made possible because of our recruitment drives which allow our students to network with a number of industry experts, while at the same time receiving vital industry knowledge. In honour of Women’s Month, we checked in with some of our final year female students currently doing their internships at the following companies: Dot Slash, Siemens and Symbiotics. They share a bit about the companies, their experience so far, as well as what being a woman in IT means to them. Eldané Ferreira knew she wanted to become a software engineer the day she programmed her first application. “Creating something from nothing is such a satisfying achievement,” she says. She is currently doing her internship at Dot Slash, a software house and digital agency that specialises in mobile applications, web development and UX design. “My experience so far has been very educational. I have been given the opportunity to work with a whole bunch of different technologies on various projects. I was immediately welcomed as part of the team and I am very grateful for the opportunity,” she shares. Ms. Ferreira believes that although the IT field is still male-dominated, women finally have a voice and are being recognised for the work that they do. “The IT industry has evolved immensely when it comes to gender equality. Female developers are being taken seriously in the field,” she comments. Post-graduation, Ms. Ferreira sees herself in a leadership role that allows her to make a difference in the field while also being able to do what she loves, solve challenges every day. Magaret Keitshokile Molefe envisions herself as a data scientist owning a company that develops innovative technological solutions in the field of biology. “I want to have my very own laboratory, health and beauty centre and private hospital,” she says. When she arrived at Belgium Campus she didn’t know very much about computers or IT. “All I knew was Microsoft Word and I was trying to figure out Microsoft PowerPoint. Programming was very foreign to me, it was a constant battle I had to overcome,” she shares. Ms. Molefe was able to overcome her challenges with programming, so much so that she is now hired as a developer for her internship! Ms. Molefe is currently doing her internship at Symbiotics, a company focused on custom software development, mobile app development and hosting and cloud enablement. “I am enjoying learning new programming material and tools, every day since I started I learn something new, angular is very big and there are things I come across frequently that just knock me off my feet. There is no better feeling than seeing your code run, it is like magic and it makes you feel like the best programmer in the word,” she shares. Charné Jordaan is currently doing her internship at Siemens in Belgium. Siemens, is a global powerhouse which focusses on automation, digitization and electrification. “I am happy at Siemens, the work environment is nice and my co-workers are always happy to help. The work itself is also enjoyable, I am always doing something different,” she shares. In addition to enjoying her work environment, Ms. Jordaan is also enjoying being in a different country, although it has come with some challenges.  “In the beginning it took a bit of getting used to, especially taking the train to work. The perk for me is that I have international experience at a huge company. I also get to experience a different country which has forced me to become independent,” she says. Ms. Jordaan is also taking advantage of the experience by trying a few things that Belgium is known for. “I’ve had Belgian fries and waffles, and although Belgium is known for its beer, I’ve yet to have any,” she comments. She also took a trip to the Netherlands because of its close proximity but ironically she went to the Netherlands in search of a piece of home. “They have a South African shop so I had to go!” she shares. Ms. Jordaan is struggling to decide whether to stay in South Africa for a year or two after graduation before moving back overseas, or whether to return to Belgium immediately. We don’t know about you, but we wouldn’t mind grappling with this dilemma.

Women’s Month: Internship Students Continued Companies receive hundreds if not thousands of CVs a day. Securing an internship at a recognised company which shares a similar vision and which provides ample opportunity for growth makes candidates more competitive in the job market. Internships allow students to gain exposure and experience in the field, they also allow them to decide what type of companies are a good fit for them which is equally as important. Many internships lead to permanent jobs, and even if they don’t, internship experience from a top company within your field will help you stand out. We spoke to a few more of our final year female students currently doing their internships. We found out what their internship experience has been like thus far as well as their views on the role of women in IT and their hopes for the future. Tanya de Jager is currently doing her internship at Entelect. Entelect is an enterprise software development company that provides customised software solutions. They have offices in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town and the Netherlands. “It has been an amazing year and I am very happy at the company. I have learnt more than I could imagine, I learn something new every day,” Ms. de Jager shares. Ms. de Jager believes that more women in the IT field would bring a new perspective, diversity and balance to the field which can only lead to improvement in the way IT projects are approached, since a larger target audience can be reached.  “It is quite new for women to excel in environments previously seen as predominantly male and I feel the more these women get celebrated, the more young ladies will be inspired to try their hand in the IT field,” she says. On completion of her internship, Ms. de Jager hopes to work towards becoming an intermediate/senior software engineer. “Eventually I hope to find myself in a team lead position where I can deal with both the technical and the human interaction aspect of the job,” she comments. “We want a lot more female Bill Gates,” comments Sharon Reitumetse Pitsoane who is currently doing her internship at Accenture, a multinational professional services company which provides services in digital, operations, technology, strategy, and consulting. Ms. Pitsoane believes that Accenture provides an environment filled with opportunities to not only learn new skills, but also to grow as an individual. “I have met and worked with different people who lead a truly human life and practice the, ‘ask for help and help when asked’ culture. As a result, I have been able to learn a lot and grow rapidly in a short period of time,” she says. Ms. Pitsoane has never let gender stereotypes affect her, even from a young age she was defying them. “When only boys played computer games and only girls played with dolls, I did both.  Being like this from a young age allowed me to pursue a career in IT without being discouraged by societal beliefs,” she shares. Once she receives her qualification, Ms. Pitsoane’s main focus will be uplifting young black women and helping them to see their full potential, unleash their creativity and fuel their innovative minds. “I want to help them invest in their future and education so that we can work towards completely closing the gender inequality gap in IT and engineering fields. This will consequently reduce the high unemployment rate and improve the economic growth of South Africa,” she says. Tsungai Robyn Musanda is currently doing her internship at Expeditus, a business intelligence consultancy company based in Bryanston. The company strives to drive businesses forward and ensure long term success by providing insight and measurable value. “My experience has been nothing short of amazing! The team was so welcoming and the company puts a lot of effort into the personal growth of its employees which makes working here a delight. The company also has partnerships with a number of diverse companies which I have had the opportunity to be exposed to. This has increased my knowledge of the different companies out there and how they operate,” she shares.   Ms. Musanda did not struggle to integrate into the world of work and she says this is due to the education she received at Belgium Campus. “Belgium Campus equipped me more than adequately for my internship. I was able to cope with the stress that comes with the working world and meet deadlines easily and even though I didn’t study BI as a subject, I was able to use database and other subjects I was taught that relate to the field. Belgium Campus’ IT focus means you can put all your attention into perfecting your craft, which puts you one step further than most IT students,” she shares. In the future, Ms. Musanda sees herself owning her own IT companies while being a senior consultant or in a managerial position at a leading BI company.