Durban - More international companies are setting up shop in the country and eager South African workers have taken note of this trend.
According to a webinar poll conducted by the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa, 80 percent of participants are seeking opportunities to work for international companies in Africa.
Of these 47 percent said they desired to work remotely for these companies to gain international experience, while 10 percent wanted to network with international technology leaders.
Several of the world's largest corporations, such as Amazon and Microsoft, have recently invested in new South African facilities.
BMW launched a hiring drive in July for skilled technical locals to join their new IT Hub in Pretoria, with the goal of creating 2 000 jobs by 2023.
BMW IT Hub announced the #TechTalentDays which will be held on August 27th and 28th to help find suitably qualified consultants on an assignment basis to support the initiative.
“You will be developing global solutions for the BMW Group, spanning from artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous driving and much more,” said the company.
Takealot Group CEO Mamongae Mahlare welcomed the prospect of Amazon opening its offices in Cape Town. Speaking on Bruce Whitfield’s,The Money Show on Talk 702, Mahlare said that this demonstrated that the e-commerce company had built an investment case good enough for global companies like Amazon to want to come here.
The South African job market is increasingly candidate-driven, said Mike Bignold, the co-founder and CEO of Canadian tech start-up CostCertified, who opened their global headquarters in Cape Town in June this year.
“This includes skills development, work-life balance, a positive culture, and pathways for career growth. This means that international companies with a local base of operations are enriching their value propositions around what potential employees are looking to gain through employment,” said Bignold.
According to CostCertified, South Africans are most eager about being trained in skills that are in-demand and trending worldwide.
“For companies, setting up shop in South Africa offers a ton of benefits from a cost perspective, local work ethic, and time zones. For ambitious job hunters, this means a range of possibilities in terms of career acceleration and capitalising on these companies’ efforts to attract talent,” said Bignold.
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