Unlocking staff potential with SAP ERP Digital skills development

Excitement filled the room in the Cape Town Hotel School when scholars consisting of CPUT staffers, who are mainly women in academics, were recently awarded certificates for completing their SAP train the trainer and newly advance SAP S4 HANA courses.

Prof. Renitha Rampersad, Assistant Dean for Research & Innovation in the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, congratulated the Centre for ERP in Africa (CERPiA) and the graduating women for their achievements and said that women empowerment has become very important in the country.

“Women are contributing to the society. The modern woman is self-confident,” said Rampersad. “I appreciate women who bring success to themselves and others”

CERPIA SAP education manager and trainer, Jerry Ansen, said the CPUT-based CERPIA was established in 2014 from a successfully completed two-year erp4school project, sponsored by GIZ & SAP. “The project aimed to implement the ERP education programme in Africa and CPUT is a Centre for Africa,” said Ansen.

He added that CERPIA was launched as a multidisciplinary Centre in the Faculty where partnerships with other like-minded entities at CPUT could engage to advance the CPUT agenda. CERPIA consists of three units:  Business Informatics Research, SAP/ERP Skills Development and SAP/ERP University Networking in Africa.

“Our current focus is the skilling of students and graduates to enhance their employability in this digital business economy. We have trained 8000+ graduates since 2012 in Africa,” said Ansen. He added that they have trained 800 lecturers and professors from African Universities and colleges and in the process produced over 4 500 Certified SAP ERP graduates in Africa.

He said the 100 women SAP Digital Business Skills development initiative, which was launched in September 2019, has seen 30 women trained from November to December. He added that the training of further 51 women will commence in November 2020.

Yvette Greeff, Senior Talent Development Consultant at The Foschini Group, congratulated the graduates and attributed their achievement to the ADKAR Model. Greeff added that the model is a tool created by Jeff Hiatt that helps to analyse one’s change with a view to better understand it.

• ADKAR is an acronym that represents five concrete outcomes that people need to achieve lasting change, namely Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement especially in today’s digital transformation economy.

She added that the benefits of lifelong learning are acquisition of new skills and improving old ones, nurturing curious minds, opening minds and increasing wisdom as well as improving memory.

Calvin Maseko, Director: Advancement Department, said his Unit decided to invest unrestricted donor funds in colleagues’ digital business skills to advance their learning and teaching. He thanked his colleagues in the Department for their efforts in raising the funds and doing the administrative work.

“Since 2018 we’ve been working with CERPIA and have helped with funding for the SAP ERP training of 72 staff members and students to the tune of over half a million rand,” added Maseko.

Written by Kwanele Butana
Email: butanak@cput.ac.za