240 Cojedi interns are welcomed by City
NEWTOWN – The City of Johannesburg’s Educating Digital Interns (Cojedi) programme, was proved to be a success after 242 interns passed their exams, paving the way for the newly selected 240 interns, who have big boots to fill.
The City of Johannesburg Educating Digital Interns (Cojedi) welcomed its second intake of interns on 17 September at Sci Bono Discovery Centre in Newtown. The programme aims to train 1 000 interns with ICT skills, as the City rolls out its Johannesburg Broadband Network (JBN) which is in line with its objectives of being a Smart City.
The City took on another 240 interns after the 260 interns they took in January finished with their course, that comprises theory and practical components they do in partnership with the City’s stakeholders in the project. The City announced that from their previous intake of interns, 242 successfully completed the course with three interns having dropped out, six interns currently rewriting the fifth exam and one intern is rewriting the final international exams.
Key stakeholders and partners to the programme FiberCo, Microsoft, Cisco, Technology Innovation Agency, IBM and Nunnovation Africa Foundation reiterated their commitment to up-skilling the youth in the programme and said to the learners that they represent the City’s commitment to combating youth unemployment.
The City’s leadership and its partners handed over laptops to the second co-hort of interns, who over the next three months, will dedicate their time to their technical training where they will learn theory at the Sci Bono Discovery Centre in the hopes of becoming the City’s brightest IT minds.
These skills will at the end of the programme position these youths as commercially employable in the ICT sector. Khathu Mashau, managing partner at Cojedi, told the interns that the City was proud and happy to have them but warned that it would be hard work the whole way.
“We want to encourage you to be the best that you can be. Please use this opportunity wisely and do not be an intern hopper just because of the stipend that we give you. We require 100 per cent commitment from you,” Mashau said.
