In a drive to motivate more girls to venture into information and communications technology (ICT), one of Malawi’s top ICT solutions provider, Sparc Systems offered free one-on-one mentorship, skill-building for 32 girls in Blantyre, who are eyeing the ICT career.
The mentorship — from October 18-19 that targeted those that have completed their International General School Certificate of Education (IGSCE) or Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) — offered transformative experience to empower the girls’ success long after high school or secondary school graduation.
Trainer Sarah Khudze mentoring the girls
In an interview, Sparc Systems’ HR & training manager, Sandra Mulatho: “It was a heart-warming event for the girls in ICT training facilitated by women in ICT. We are on a mission to make sure more girls join ICT.
“We are planning to conduct these free training in all places where we have our offices. So those in Lilongwe, Lusaka, Kitwe (Zambia) and Kigali in Rwanda should look out for their turn as we will be conducting similar trainings in these locations soon.”
Mulatho explained that they they decided to offer the free sessions to those who have just finished secondary school to help them with ICT skills as well as career mentorship.
“We have noticed that science careers, including ICT, have been male dominated — hence this is our contribution to motivate girls to join the ICT career and teach them how they can navigate in this male-dominated career.”
The girls were awarded certificates
Asked why they targeted girls only, Mulatho said: Sparc Systems was established to bridge the gap on enterprise ICT in Africa. We had noticed then that there were less skills on enterprise ICT in Africa — hence companies would rely on support from engineers from other countries.
“We have achieve a lot to change the mindset by doing things with local skills. In the course of our business, we have noticed that there are very few ladies in the ICT field.
“Through our Sparc Educational Services, we decided to intervene to, again, bridge this gap so that we can motivate more ladies to join ICT sector and contribute to the digital economy.
“We have noticed the exception achievements from few ladies that venture into ICT. We believe if we can have more ladies in ICT we can have a bigger push for our economic activities.
Attentive class
“The future is digital. Data is the new oil and having ladies in this field will help us reach far.”
She indicated that there was massive response to their invitation for application, saying a total number of girls who applied were 252 and had to be shortlisted to 32.
SPARC Systems Limited was established in 2013 operating in Malawi but soon made inroads into Zambia and Rwanda ICT market where it has several branches.
The company has been operating in Africa for many years and have implemented solutions in over 10 countries across Africa.
