Telkom Integrated Report 2017

WTC is a non-profit social enterprise that provides tuition-free peer-

to-peer learning. The core mission is to source and develop the next

generation of digital talent, aimed at students who are 17 to 35 years

old, regardless of previous education, socio-economic background

or financial means. The students solve real-world problems and are

funded through partnerships with BCX.

The three-year partnership with WTC includes an investment of

R60 million over the period beginning in 2016. There is an agreement

that there will be geographic expansion to Cape Town within the

three-year period, in order to extend the reach of the programme.

The total number of students is expected to increase to approximately

600 or more by the end of the three years.

The programme will give the group the scale to significantly grow and

directly benefit from the students’ coding skills.

The investment also allowsTelkom to stimulate the technology

industry through:

> potential partnerships on research and development laboratories:

•

gaming/virtual reality lab in Johannesburg

•

data science lab in Cape Town

> BCX becoming a growth partner

> students solving real-world problems

> access to talent forTelkom and BCX partners

> leveraging investment to achieve scale as we grow in innovation

WeThinkCode (WTC)

Refer to the human capital supplementary report available

online

for case studies.

Future talent pipeline

As part of our focus on

empowering the youth of

our country, we supported

learnerships and internships for

employed and unemployed young

black people.

The creation of a future talent

pipeline to address the IT and

digital skills gap includes a

significant investment that

Telkom, through its wholly owned

subsidiary BCX, is making to

support coding and programming

skills development. We do this by

partnering with institutions such

as WTC, that provide skills for the

youth in this field.