The fixed application windows of the Digital Skills Impact Fund have been scrapped and employers of entry-level digital skills and digital skills training providers can apply at any time for financial support for programmes that result in recognised digital qualifications and permanent employment for youth, says National Digital Skills Plan coordinating body Collective X.

The move away from funding windows reflects the growth and maturity of the Digital Skills Impact Fund since its launch in 2024. To date, more than 1 800 young people have participated, or are currently participating, in programmes supported through the fund across all nine provinces.

Through training aligned to the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) and work-integrated learning (WIL), the young people move into quality employment, with 97% of participants absorbed into employment, and with more than 75% of them employed after only six months.

The SFIA is the international standard used by employers to describe technology roles and skill levels.

South Africa currently produces about 20 000 digitally skilled workers a year. Under the National Digital Skills Plan, Collective X is working to double that to more than 40 000 a year by 2030, and to help 500 000 young people into in-demand digital roles by 2034.

The outcomes-based skills fund does not pay for training inputs, but rather co-pays employers, aggregators and implementation partners for delivering verified outcomes, which helps to build an inclusive, employer-led pipeline of entry-level information and communications technology talent for South Africa's digital economy.

It has current multi-year financing commitments of more than R600-million, R200-million of which is committed to the next 12 months.

“The fund has shown that paying for results, rather than for training inputs, connects young people to the skills and workplace experience employers actually need. We can now respond to applications when employers and implementation partners are ready to launch a programme, instead of asking them to work according to a funding calendar that may not suit their timelines,” says Collective X Digital Skills Impact Fund executive Nsika Mutasa.

The fund’s new ‘Always On’ approach to financing is expected to result in the number of active employer and implementation partners delivering programmes growing from 30 to 100 by the end of this year, he notes.

The fund currently supports two routes into employment. The first is the full route to competence for young people with no post-school technology training that combines foundational training with a structured period of paid, supervised work experience, or WIL.

The second route is the workplace experience route, which is for young people who have already completed relevant technology training and are ready to move straight into structured workplace experience, or WIL.

Applications are open to employers, delivery partners and aggregators on Collective X's website.

Aggregators are organisations that assemble and manage groups of young people on behalf of several smaller employers, so that businesses too small to run a cohort on their own can participate.

The Training on Fund-supported programmes are also mapped to the SFIA, which means a young person’s training corresponds to specific skills in a recognised job rather than to a generic certificate.

Additionally, the fund is also designed to promote meaningful representation among beneficiaries, with participation targets of 85% black African, 70% women and 1.5% people with disabilities.

Employers must also be able to demonstrate that they have quality job opportunities for the full allocation they are applying for and are expected to place at least 70% of their participants at the end of their workplace experience, Collective X adds.

Every application is assessed by a technical evaluation committee made up of independent industry experts, who review the quality of the training, the credibility of the work placement, the employer’s ability to deliver and whether their programme creates new jobs rather than subsidising existing ones.

Further, Collective X does not deliver training itself. It sets the standards, coordinates the partners, and funds delivery through instruments such as the Digital Skills Impact Fund.

“When funders, employers, training providers and young people all work towards the same verified outcomes, you get a pipeline that businesses can hire from and that provides a real route into the digital economy for young people,” says Collective X CEO Evan Jones.