[19 March 2001] – Absa and the University of Pretoria recently teamed up to combat the dearth of vital information technology (IT) proficiency and learning in the South African marketplace.
Together Absa and the University will seek to pool resources in the areas of education, training, recruitment and IT research projects.
Absa has, over the course of the previous eight years, consistently funded the Universitys Department of Informatics in their research and their new-fangled partnership will attempt to extend the scope of that association.
As such, their non-exclusive partnership aims to merge the banks skills in tech-empowered financial services with those of the Department of Informatics.
“The country is experiencing a shortage of IT skills in distinct competencies,” explained Dennis Farrel, head of People Management at Absa’s Group IT.
“Our collaboration with the university and investment in training and growth is one way to counter that problem.”
A joint pooling of resources will enable Absa and the University to conduct research into areas of mutual interest such as e-business, e-commerce, security and customer relationship management.
Also on the cards is a staff exchange programme as well as internships for students.
Instead of having to rely on imported skills the partnership will do allow Absa to access a highly qualified and experienced local recruitment base.
IT scholars will likewise benefit through a first-hand experience of corporate networks.