Zindi and Microsoft partnered to host a virtual career fair for Azure Cloud practitioners in Africa, aiming to connect talent with the companies that need it.
The event brought together employers like Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Standard Bank Group, Entelect and iOCO with skilled cloud engineers and data practitioners from the Zindi platform to connect and share opportunities. With seven major tech employers partnering with Zindi, and more than 120 cloud practitioners joining the evening event, the lively conversations and connections created made for a groundbreaking event in the African tech talent space.
"By 2050, 40% of the world's young people will be in Africa," says Celina Lee, CEO of Zindi. "This is a revolution in the way the world does business, and Zindi is at the forefront of developing and connecting that potential to the many opportunities available in today's connected global economy. Our partnership with Microsoft is just one way we are building the data science workforce of the future."
Aspiring cloud engineers and data scientists heard from experts like Azure specialists Adam Alidra and Bethany Jepchumba from Microsoft, as well as from industry leaders like Kavi Pather , Advanced AI and Analytics Lead for Africa at Ernst & Young.
But the real learning and excitement was in the breakout sessions, when the keynote addresses were over. Attendees had the chance to join breakout rooms hosted by each of the partner organisations on the day, where they could learn more about working at the various organisations represented and get to engage directly with recruiters, hiring managers and technical leadership.
"Thank you so much for organising this event," said one attendee. "I was so excited to learn that there are internship opportunities for data analytics beginners like me."
The Azure Career Fair forms part of a long-term collaboration between Zindi and Microsoft, which aims to grow the quantity and quality of roles like cloud engineers, data scientists and analysts coming out of African countries. Microsoft has sponsored all three previous editions of Zindi's UmojaHack Africa , the largest inter-university machine learning hackathon on the continent. Zindi and Microsoft have also partnered to develop AI models through Zindi's online machine learning challenges , and promote Microsoft learning content.
