Limpopo’s new Digital Innovation Lab is bringing coding to the province’s unemployed youth

Through a collaboration with Samsung, the University of Limpopo has launched what it calls a ‘Digital Innovation Lab’ (DIL) — where the whole idea is to help build up the province’s skills in software development and ultimately enhance “the prospects of employment or entrepreneurship in the region.”

Limpopo’s stepping up

The lab, officially unveiled yesterday at the University by Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma — the Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities and the University’s Chancellor — features a curriculum catering towards coding, programming fundamentals and “digital social innovation.”

According to an abstract from a study conducted in the Capricorn District of Limpopo, with participants from two municipalities Polokwane and Lepelle-Nkumpi:

“Youth unemployment is rife in South Africa, especially in rural communities such as those in the Limpopo province. Young people in many parts of the country are unskilled or semi-skilled; those with tertiary education are in the minority. Many of these young people are therefore not participating actively in the economy of the country. They depend on the government to meet their basic needs.”

Specifically, the lab will be taking those involved through a 10-month-long software development (SWD) course, providing valuable, real-life experience in the outside world. The “digital social innovation” bit will have candidates trying their hand with a real-life community problem, which they’ll be solving through digital means.

“This historic event marks a significant step towards empowering women, youth and persons with disabilities and encouraging innovation in Limpopo to showcase and inspire similar innovative measures for other young people across the country,” the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) said in a statement.

Unfortunately, the lab is only designed to include “25 unemployed youth in the province,” at a time, hardly shattering the province’s rate of unemployment. But hey, it’s a start — and every little bit helps. Should the programme be successful, it could open the doors to the DIL’s expansion, possibly including a larger pool of unemployed youth in its ranks.

This isn’t the first time Samsung’s dipped its toes into the country’s digital sector. It helped build a similar ‘Innovation Lab’ a couple of years back in the Western Cape, with the same goals designed to help the unemployed youth take their first steps into the digital sector.