Thuso Phala Foundation Academy Players goes Techno

The Thuso Phala Foundation (TPF) is pressing ahead with its double goal objective of empowering the youth on and off the field. A total of fourty (40) players from the Thuso Phala Academy have undergone the first phase of computer coding at the UNISA Florida campus.

The training is a result of the partnership between the TPF and the Africa Teen Geeks (ATG), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that teaches school children computer programming.

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TPF Founder Thuso Phala, told his players to strike a balance between playing football and pursuing their studies; “when I grew up I didn’t have access to computers, and obviously no opportunities to be trained in this science, I’m highly thankful to this partnership with Africa Teen Geeks, UNISA and the department of Science and Technology for opening up opportunities for the children and the youth to study computer science. I’m also elated to see an eight year old football player from my foundation being trained in computer coding, this computer training will develop a skill for this youngsters and I’m glad that they have embraced this opportunity,” said Phala 

The TPF Chairperson Suzan Khoza says the holistic development of players is a priority for the foundation, and hailed the partnership with ATG as historic and relevant. “the latest statistics of youth unemployment, high rate of school and university drop outs are some of the real challenges facing our youth; and they demand of us to form meaningful partnerships to tackle this challenges head on, we are grateful to have a partnership with Africa Teen Geeks and we pledge to support this computer programming beyond the margins of the Thuso Phala Foundation;” said Khoza.

Africa Teen Geeks Founder Lindiwe Matlali says a partnership with the Foundation will go a long way in contributing positively to the advancement of computer programming among the youth.

‘We are delighted to have Thuso Phala through his Foundation as part of the programme, we are optimistic that his success on the football pitch at his club Supersport United and the National Team Bafana Bafana, will inspire the youth to take up computer programming with greater enthusiasm,” commented Matlali. 

Africa Teen Geeks has also partnered with the Department of Science and Technology, SABC Foundation and UNISA school of Computing to promote Computer Science studies among the youth.

The objectives of the Computer Science training include the following:

• Expose children from previously disadvantaged schools to computer science (CS) through the fun and exciting CS-First curriculum.
• Dispel the myth that computer science is difficult.
• Encourage children especially girls and previously disadvantaged children to pursue computing careers.
• Close the opportunity gap where access to computer science is concerned between poor and rich.

Computer science is only taught in 5% of South African Schools.  In 2014, the Department of Labour declared IT (term used for computing/CS) as a scarce and critical skill and opened its borders to migrants to help fill the shortage of qualified IT professionals. Despite the introduction of a national IT curriculum by the DBE in 2012, it’s estimated that only less than 5% of schools nationally offer IT as a subject and less than 1% of matric students take IT as a subject.

By: Editor