Taking the future of IT to greater heights

Taking the future of IT to greater heights

Founded in 2009, the idea behind IT Varsity was a solution to the Founder’s problem, Bilal Kathrada, who couldn’t get couldn’t get a job in software development after graduating with a Computer Science degree from a university.

His ambition was to become a software developer but he couldn’t get a job because he didn’t have any experience and university didn’t actually prepare him for the world of work in software development. He taught himself all the necessary skills to break the cycle that he faced and after gaining the skills, he decided to teach graduates the skills they needed to get jobs.

As time went by, more undergraduates were approaching him, including school leavers that wanted to get into software development careers and didn’t want to go the university route. It was then that he decided to get accredited and started offering the course not just to graduates but also to undergraduates. They taught face-to-face and in 2019, the campus went fully online.

Bilal Kathrada Founder & CEO, IT Varsity

What makes IT Varsity unique?

A graduate of IT Varsity is leaps ahead of a graduate from another institute simply because they don’t just study with us, but they are mentored by me, I personally mentor every student and we graduate them with the skills and that’s why we’ve we’ve been able to deal with some of the biggest companies in the world such as Microsoft and Amazon and Google and Anglo American South32.

We are doing exceptionally well because of the way we’re doing itonline learning is in big demand and more and more companies are turning to us for their training needs because they are realising that what we are giving is very close to what they require in the workplace.

Please tell us about your role at IT Varsity and what excites you about what you do.

I’m currently the CEO of the company and responsible for strategic decisions going forward. What excites me the most is seeing my students graduate and go on to big things, nothing makes me happier than to see that because we as a company, don’t pride ourselves on how much money we make or how many people we graduate, but we measure ourselves on how many of our graduates go and get good solid jobs or start their own businesses.

And that’s something that’s integrated into the culture of the business- we are not here to award certificates and send people away but we’re here to get people on the road to earning a good solid income and to set them up on a platform for success.

What does the future of IT looks like in South Africa?

It’s promising and bright because South Africa has a young, intelligent population. We have youth that is hungry for growth, hungry for knowledge, hungry for opportunities and we’re giving them those opportunities.

We’re working with corporates to fund projects where we are giving them opportunities to learn technology. And as part of the training we give them, we teach them how to get involved in that freelance economy through Clinnk and through other websites. And in doing so, my vision is over the next five years, we must have 100,000 IT freelancers in this country working from everywhere in the country.

Townships will become technology hubs, they will be epicenters of freelance workers sitting in their coffee shops, sitting in co-working spaces and doing freelance work for companies all over the world. That’s the future of the townships because South Africans live in townships. That’s where the vast majority of our population is and the vast majority of our unemployed youth. So I want to wake up the youth and teach them to not wait around for employment but to learn technology and offer their services globally through the platform.

Telephone: 061 446 8695

Email: courses@itvarsity.org

Web: itvarsity.org