System Verification Teams Up With WeThinkCode_ To Build Up Automation QA Skills In South Africa
System Verification Teams Up With WeThinkCode_ To Build Up Automation QA Skills In South Africa. WeThinkCode_ has partnered with Swedish global software quality assurance (QA) company, System Verification, which specialises in advanced quality monitoring and analytics. The partnership will see hundreds of WeThinkCode_ students acquiring global standard Test Automation skills, helping to close the gap for this critical skill in South Africa and beyond.
Hamdija Jusufagic, founder of Systems Verification says, “In 2013, System Verification opened its office in Sarajevo. We collaborated with universities to find local talent and build a dynamic workforce whose contribution we value at the same level as our teams in Sweden. Our success in showing that great talent lives and thrives in places that are overlooked and underappreciated has cemented my commitment to building a global organisation. One that is as effective at building resilient software systems as it is at building resilient individuals and communities. This commitment underpins our partnership with WeThinkCode_ in South Africa. We believe that partnering with a local software development academy that enrolls youth from underserved communities will enable us to grow the talent pool of world-class Automation QA engineers. There is no substitute for local context and boots on the ground.”
System Verification aims to build on WeThinkCode_’s success in placing 93% of their software developers into employment, by extending their skill set to the specialist track of Automation QA. Additionally, the collaboration creates meaningful value for everyone involved. Graduates from the academy acquire very scarce and highly sought-after QA skills, and the companies that fund the tuition are now able to tap into a pipeline of QA engineers. In the collaboration between the two tech organisations, WeThinkCode_ students are now able to elect a specialised field after 14 months of learning software development fundamentals. System Verification brought its world-class Test Star curriculum and augmented it with WeThinkCode_’s leading curriculum developers to offer the Automation QA elective track, which piloted late 2022.
Aslam Khan, board member and co-author of the core curriculum at WeThinkCode_, is pleased with the outcomes of the elective pilot and looks forward to the journey ahead with System Verification. “With over 100 graduates from the first Test Star class, we are excited at the fruit that this collaboration has been able to yield in such a short space of time. There is an acute shortage of Test Automation QA engineers around the world, and this creates a huge opportunity for South Africa’s youth. Our partnership with System Verification is fully aligned with our mission to close the digital skills gap and put South Africa’s tech talent on the global map. Working with Hamdija and his team has been a refreshing experience of co-creating impact” says Khan.
“System Verification consultants sat in on final project presentations of WeThinkCode_ students that were about to graduate and they were very impressed by their level of proficiency. It was all thumbs up and top grades,” says Hamdija.
System Verification also offered students support beyond the curriculum content. Jonas Gyllenspetz, System Verification’s Chief Growth Officer explains, “System Verification employees volunteered to act as technical mentors and tutors to the students. We held an initial Q&A session in September 2022, where nearly 150 WeThinkCode_ students were able to ask questions to our team of experts. After the session, they continued to communicate through a Slack channel and supported the students until the final project showcase. I think it is a good setup – working from different locations is no issue, it is standard procedure for us. Another upside is that although South Africa is on the other side of the globe, there is a maximum of 1-hour time difference between us.”
The practical curriculum that has been developed and fine-tuned over the years, is administered in a manner very similar to the WeThinkCode_ peer-to-peer learning environment. With some adaptations, the WeThinkCode_ edition of Test Star is delivered over eight weeks of full-time study and is now incorporated into the WeThinkCode_ learning platform.
WeThinkCode_ CEO, Nyari Samushonga, agrees that long-term strategic alignment between the two organisations will ultimately create more local and global opportunities for WeThinkCode_ graduates. “As a growing supplier of highly skilled and work-ready software developers, it’s critical that we keep the curriculum aligned with market demand and ensure that students are adequately equipped to deliver above and beyond their fundamental programming skills to enhance their employability. We are thrilled to be working with an organisation like System Verification, which is the leader in its field, and we look forward to seeing how this partnership develops in the coming years.”
