Neotel CEO
The company was set up in 1981 to help the nascent information and communication technology (ICT) industry overcome its human resource challenges. Today it is among the world's top talent development companies, offering learning solutions to individuals, enterprises and institutions across 40 countries.
Skills development
In 2009, the department of economic development of KwaZulu-Natal, the Confederation of India Industry, NIIT and the Moses Kotane Institute created a skills project called Global Talent Pool in ICT and Business Process Outsourcing in the province.
The vision of the project was to enhance the internal competitiveness of the province through improving in skills and service standards.
The project focused on setting up a training institute for software engineering and business process outsourcing to foster and accelerate ICT and ICT-enabled human capacity building in the province.
Programmes were formulated to train 10 000 learners, 5 000 each in software engineering and business process outsourcing over the next five years and eight campuses have imparted knowledge to 4 473 learners so far. In 2010, the successful first batch of interns from the project went to India for a one-year internship.
Provincial maths labs
The Free State department of education, NIIT and its business partners Eagle Brothers signed a contract in August 2011 to establish mathematics laboratories at 200 schools. The contract also includes training more than 2 000 maths educators, which will improve the academic skills of more than 200 000 learners.
The first maths lab in the Free State was inaugurated by Premier Ace Magshule and presided over by the Free State MEC for education Tate Makgoe and the other dignitaries at Theha Setjhaba Primary School in Sasolburg.
After the successful implementation of maths labs at 200 schools, the Free State department of education signed an agreement to establish maths labs in a further 300 schools in the province as the second phase of the project.
In 2012 the project was extended to the Eastern Cape where NIIT donated its first maths lab in Nxuba SP school in Cradock, Eastern Cape to serve an under-privileged community. The lab was inaugurated by the director of the department's Cradock office, EG Klaasen, in May 2012.
NIIT also donated six maths labs in KwaZulu-Natal to provide opportunities for educators and learners. MEC for education in KwaZulu-Natal Senzo Mchunu and the wives of Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini inaugurated the maths lab at Nongoma Primary School.
On Valentine's Day 2013, Neotel and NIIT formed a partnership to address the skills shortage and growing needs in IT, business process outsourcing, banking and insurance, finance and school solutions in South Africa and the Southern African Development Community region.
The objective of the partnership is to provide education and training programmes to individuals, corporates, communities, schools and other organisations to meet the demand for the maths, science and ICT-related skills.
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