AAD and Resolution Circle upskill students - 13 June 2018 - Altron Arrow

AAD and Resolution Circle upskill students
13 June 2018, This Week's Editor's Pick, News

Arrow Altech Distribution (AAD) and Resolution Circle, the University of Johannesburg initiative which offers in-service training, have launched a joint youth skills development programme that shall see 120 student engineers receive in-service training in cellphone screen and battery repairs.

Arrow Altech’s managing director, Peter Griffiths, handed over mobile phone repair kits, ESD devices and cellphones, which the students will use during the training, to Resolution Circle’s group senior manager of business incubation and internships, Sibusiso Shange. Resolution Circle’s group senior manager of research and development, Dr. Wiehan le Roux, group senior manager of operational services, Lieze Malan, interim CEO Gideon Potgieter, and HoD of manufacturing Fiston Nselike were also present at the handover.

Griffiths states that the aim of this joint initiative is to upskill students so that they may seek employment in the formal mobile phone repair sector or be equipped to offer community-based mobile phone repair services. “The partnership with Resolution Circle enables the repair market to gain access to a nationwide ecosystem of formalised technology-based training that develops both practical skills as well as leadership and entrepreneurship in the youth sector,” he says.

According to Statista, there are currently 20,3 million cellphone users in South Africa with annual growth in handsets estimated at 7% year on year. This ownership comes with vulnerability as cellphone users are likely to damage their phone approximately 10 weeks after purchase and battery life expectancy being limited to a set number of charge and discharge cycles.

Corporates, according to Griffiths, need to take steps to build strategic alliances and partnerships with entities like the University of Johannesburg and Resolution Circle as investment in youth will generate business opportunities and potential which expand current markets. He adds that small steps such as this allow the country to contribute to long-term social stability through financial inclusion and introduce new approaches to the market where the potential of digitalisation continues to affect the status quo.

For more information contact Peter Griffiths, Arrow Altech Distribution, +27 11 923 9600, info@arrow.altech.co.za, www.arrow.altech.co.za