SA teams shine bright at Brics Future Skills Challenge

Young innovators from Brics founding member countries descended at Nasrec, Johannesburg, recently for the Brics Future Skills Challenge.

The five-day event swiftly concluded on Friday with a prize-giving ceremony where winning teams were awarded medals.

Facilitated by the Brics Business Council, the competition brought youth from Brics countries under one one roof to participate in the week-long challenge.

Brics Business Council Skills Working Group chairperson Mapule Ncanywa told The Citizen her highlight for the week was seeing South African teams win across various categories.

Ncanywa said she was not sure how well SA teams would do against participants from their Brics counterparts but the teams exceeded her expectations.

ALSO READ: SA fintech start-ups win fintech challenge

Demystifying science

Ncanywa said the way science was historically presented made the area of study seem difficult and foreign, especially among the “older generation,” however, she added that young people had cracked the code.

“If you look at young people today, and the way they play with gadgets, and the way they model things its science,” she said,

Victorious

Nelson Mandela University’s (NMU) four tech musketeers Wilson Nemukula, Innocent Mateyaunga, Lupiwe Mgxabayi and Jarryd Roote scored a bronze medal in the drone category.

Speaking to The Citizen, Nemukula said the team’s daunting task entailed assembling a drone from scratch, and ensuring it functions optimally.

Mgxabayi said drones could be useful tools, especially in delivery of medication in rural communities and for security surveillance purposes, adding SA legislation could be improved to cater for drones regulation.

ALSO READ: Revenue for fintech in Africa could grow eight times, reaching $30 billion by 2025

Fellow team member, Mateyaunga said the group’s tech endeavours would continue beyond their momentous victory.

“We’re going to work on improving our skills,” he told The Citizen.

Mateyaunga said the team would use the experiences gained from the Brics challenge to better prepare – adding the group would return stronger next year. 

SA teams won gold medals in various categories including Aircraft, Internet Marketing, Renewable Energy and Building Information Modelling (BIM).

A different kind of engineer

Brics Future Skills Challenge Drones operations organiser and SA teams’ expert, Damian Mooney said: “China in particular were much stronger than we thought, but we still kept up with them nonetheless,” he told The Citizen.

Mooney said although most SA participants were university students, the competition is open to everyone, adding he was disappointed that non-university students didn’t take part.

“I’m looking for someone who’s sitting at home, breaking things and putting them together – that’s the kind of engineer I’m looking for,” said Mooney. 

Bench-marking

“I believe young people have the tenacity and drive when it comes to competing for things meaningful to them, ” said Ncanywa.

“When we did this call-out, we wanted them to come and benchmark their skills levels against those of their counterparts from other Brics nations,” Ncanywa said.

She also said her other primary objective was to attract more business partners, adding she had already received a request for partnership in the renewables category.

When asked how Brics Future Skills Challenge would help eliminate stereotypes about science being a difficult area, Ncanywa said taking events like the Brics Future Skills Challenge to communities would go a long way.

Ncanywa said despite Matric being the highest educational qualification for some participants, they were able to compete “at this level”.

“There are opportunities in the African continent,” she said.

ALSO READ: SA brands reigned supreme at 2023 Miss SA pageant

Brics academy

Ncanywa said Brics was planning to open an academy in South Africa as it had in other member countries, which she said would be a platform for young innovators to benchmark themselves against their Brics counterparts.

The chairperson said, ideally, she preferred to open various branches countrywide for easier access to the facilities, instead of a single entity.

Partnerships

The Brics Business Council paired businesses and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to drive strategic and mutually beneficial partnerships.

During the final ceremony, parties signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) which laid out the terms and condition of each respective partnership.

ALSO READ: Take your small business to the next level