By Jessica Hawkey, MD of redAcademy

We are starting to see a shift in how IT is viewed generally. The status quo has been that there are companies that provide a range of IT services to businesses that focus on their own core business. This makes sense. However, think about banking and retail, specifically. IT, especially software development, has become a key differentiating factor and is foundational to their evolving businesses and the services they can offer to demanding customers.

In this highly competitive landscape, digital strategy needs to be at the forefront of an organisation’s planning. Rather than be seen as a support function, it needs to be integral to a business’s strategy, with the right people, producing talent and outcomes at the right cost and quality.

The alternative, and this is currently a very real pain felt by businesses, is that, if IT is outsourced at an arm’s length, there is often a loss in long-term planning and strategic capabilities. This is over and above navigating different organisational cultures, time zones and languages. Of course, one of the biggest worries is losing valuable business IP.

South African corporates have overcome these challenges somewhat by setting up their own development centres offshore. However, one shouldn’t be shy to ask: What is their long-term plan as a good corporate citizen to bring this capability back to South Africa? We all have a vested interest in this country and being part of the solution is exactly what the country needs and what the same businesses’ future customers so desperately need.

We support government in their view that young people without experience still need to find employment. However, young people are turned away from businesses that don’t have the capacity to provide the kind of experience they need to become fully fledged software developers. Many businesses believe that the only way they can be part of the solution is by burdening their already finely stretched teams with training and onboarding young people. It’s precisely because of this that we came up with a model that ensures this is all handled by the academy and not businesses themselves, giving them peace of mind that they’re getting talent that’s already proven itself in their live environment without burdening their own resources.

redPanda Software has hired redAcademy graduates from its 2023 and 2024 intakes. Human capital director at redPanda Software Insaaf Daniels says: “This initiative has not only bolstered our team with fresh talent but has also resulted in high talent retention and significant cost savings of over R800 000 in recruitment fees.”

Niel Coetzee, head of engineering at redPanda Software, emphasises the company's success in retaining junior talent as a result of receiving experiential training in their live environments. This approach has proven effective with multiple cohorts of junior candidates successfully transitioning into valuable long-term employees.

“With the culture and way of working already entrenched as they join us, we have found that they quickly get in step with the delivery team. Additionally, from a technology perspective, we have seen that having candidates familiar with the chosen tech stack and way of working allows the onboarding process to be streamlined significantly.”

None of this is philosophical. There are practical steps businesses can take to get to a point where they are effectively nurturing their own local talent that addresses their needs without having to slow down or compromise in any way.

The concept that underpins redAcademy demonstrates the efficacy of building role-ready candidates. This is how it works:

• A business carves out time to assess its needs and roles (jobs) of the future
• The discovery phase only takes a few hours, which results in the development of customised training material to develop role-ready candidates specifically for each organisation
• After six months of highly focused theory, the team begins live development training in the business environment, overseen by the academy’s experts, adding no extra burden on already stretched software teams
• Because they are trained in a live environment, the candidates are known to businesses before being onboarded as team members
• A comprehensive quality assurance phase ensures candidates are ready to hit the ground running and aligned with the business’s culture and expectations
• Candidates who have been trained and gained experience in a business’s own live environment are interviewed by an experienced team to assure a culture fit

Of course, many businesses outsource projects offshore but, with the country’s best interests at heart, they can start small by shifting projects to local software development partners or their own in-house teams.

If businesses across sectors are starting to shift how they see IT and software, from a support element to something key to their strategic roadmap, then they need to ensure a solid and reliable skills pipeline. Building your own talent, tailored methodically over the space of a year to your own business’s unique needs, without being burdened with actually doing the training, really does present a compelling opportunity to grow South Africa’s talent pool.