TshedzaApp™, a one stop career app designed by a group of CPUT innovators has scooped a top prize at the SAB Foundation Innovation Awards.
A mobile app, TshedzaApp™, is a virtual career coach that allows users to interact with coaching professionals as well as find and access information on tertiary courses and bursaries in South Africa.
The team walked off with the Development Award as well as a R250 000 business support grant with coaching and mentoring.
Inventor and project leader, Mbavhalelo Mabogo, says the mobile app aims to counter the high dropout rates at tertiary institutions, by providing high school learners with correct information to ensure they make informed choices about their future.
“We are planning to channel this support wholly into product activation in 2016. This means physically going to school and getting the kids to download the app, learn to use it, so that they can spread the word,” he says.”
“Many drop out because they are in the wrong course. Others cannot apply to university because they have the wrong subject combination,” says Mabogo, who is the WIL Coordinator in the Faculty of Engineering.
By inventing TshedzaApp™, Mabogo and his team hope to combat these problems.
The mobile app has a built in career screening tool, which based on information created by the user in their profile, will list possible study options along with the universities that offer the courses.
It contains information from higher education institutions in South Africa, which includes everything from course information, requirements, to funding options.
The mobile app will also assist high school learners in choosing the right school subjects, and also allows them to interact with industry professionals in a monitored and open discussion group.
Mabogo is supported by a team of industry and academic professionals. He says the mobile app has been tested at schools in Khayelitsha and Kraaifontein and has also had a pilot run on Google Play.
TshedzaApp™ can be accessed on Google Play and is free to users.
