South African coding school Digital Geekaship has launched its Campus Battle software development challenge for ICT students, with selected teams challenged to come up with a solution over 36 hours.
Tania van Wyk De Vries, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of South African software development and training company Infoware Studios, launched Digital Geekaship in 2014, frustrated by the level of technical skills of students coming out of tertiary institutions.
Disrupt Africa reported last month applications had opened for the annual Digital Geekaship internship programme, an eight-month fast track technical skills development and internship programme. Successful candidates graduate with specialised software development skills and work experience.
ICT students can experience first-hand what the Digital Geekaship programme is all about by signing up to participate in their upcoming Campus Battle. Applications are open until September 27.
“The widening skills gap is a really big issue being faced by companies in South Africa. And it’s as frustrating for the developers fresh out of their tertiary studies as it is for the Tech Managers looking for fresh talent,” Digital Geekaship said.
The Campus Battle is one of the initiative’s solutions to this problem. The challenge combines teamwork and application development, and is open to ICT students from any South African university and Technical Vocational and Education Training (TVET) college.
It is open to individuals that qualify interested in software, mobile development, web development, front-end development, systems design and engineering, and is limited to three teams per tertiary institution. Each team should consist of no more than five members from the same institution, at least two members of the team should be competent in digital design and development.
Teams will be briefed on the challenge, and over the course of 36 hours will need to develop a functioning solution. Each team will also be required to submit 30-second videos of the team’s progress, in which they can share anything related to their experience of the challenge. There are some big prizes up for grabs to the winning teams.
