Jessica Hawkey

What does your company do?

redAcademy was created to tackle three major challenges: the limited pathways for young South Africans to enter skilled IT careers, the exponential demand for software developers, and the alarming youth unemployment rate, which exceeded 60% in 2021. Recognising that traditional education models were not effectively preparing graduates for the workplace, Jessica Hawkey, Founder and Managing Director of redAcademy, designed an accelerated, industry-integrated program. redAcademy’s Career Sprint model, Skills-Integration-as-a-Service (SIaaS), ensures that students—known as “Sprinters”—gain real-world experience while training, making them immediately employable upon graduation. redAcademy is an innovative skills and experiential learning hub in South Africa. With a deep passion for empowering South African youth, Jessica has pioneered a unique approach to bridging the gap between education and employment in the IT sector. Her work has directly addressed the IT skills shortage while simultaneously creating meaningful career opportunities for young South Africans. This hands-on approach has redefined industry expectations for junior developers, with redAcademy achieving a 96% employment rate for graduates. By embedding Sprinters within client environments and ensuring they gain expertise on live projects, redAcademy offers businesses a sustainable and cost-effective solution to their tech talent needs. The success of this innovative model as resulted in redAcademy expanding on their course offerings, offering business more in-demands skills locally to include Test Automation and Data Science. Additionally, Cybersecurity, AI development and Project Management will be available later this year. redAcademy’s QCTO accredited programmes pioneer a new way to address the IT experience gap for businesses and youth alike, working to solve this skills gap for business, the South African economy and the workforce of the future, our youth.

What is your biggest success?

Pioneering a new way for South African youth to fast-track into a career in tech through our demand-led training. RedAcademy is an innovative skills and experiential learning hub that specialises in teaching coding and technology skills. This accredited 12-month program includes six months of theoretical learning followed by six months of hands-on experience with live development projects, training South African matriculant youth, inside the client live working environment. Our Skills-Integration-as-a-Service (SIaaS) solution is a demand-led customised program which includes learning the clients tech stack and operational processes. The second half of the program is spent on real world project delivery, ensuring candidates are equipped with the technical and soft skills to be work ready from their very first day of employment, having already delivered into the clients business. This in-person customised approach including working experience has enabled redAcademy to achieve a 96% employment rate of graduates in the tech industry, the day after leaving the program. Additionally, redAcademy was previously accredited with MICT SETA (Sector Education and Training Authority), which has since shifted to a QCTO accreditation Software Development, Test Automation and Data Science Practitioner programme accreditations signify that our programs meet the industry standards and ensures that our students receive quality training recognised by employers, further enhancing their employability and success in the workforce.

What has been your biggest hurdle?

Educating the market that there is a new way to obtain work-ready tech talent at scale, within a year Solutions that create sustainable employment for youth, solutions that assist in stabilising the economy and lessening the tech skills gaps. Educating the market that there is a new way to obtain work-ready tech talent at scale, within a year of students, “Sprinters”, graduating from our programme. Educating the market that traditional means of obtaining an education and achieving a degree cannot be the only solution to youth upskilling and sustainable employment at scale. Our process has a proven track record, with a 96% success rate of candidates being placed into employment, from day one of their graduation. The Skills Integration as a Service model, learning, earning and working, also sees candidates remaining with their employers long after graduating. Additionally, the Skills Integration as a Service model is achieved at no extra cost to an IT budget, with real work benefit being gained by organisations within 6 months of the year-long program. The momentum for this solution is growing.