While the Centre for Enterprise Resource Planning in Africa (CERPiA) has integrated the SAP ERP program into the curricula for third-year and fourth year students in Accounting, Financial Information Systems, Public Management and Human Resources Management, student enrolments for its short courses has seen a steady growth over the recent years.
More and more graduates are applying for the short courses to up skill to secure better jobs, says CERPIA manager Jerry Ansen.
CERPIA provides ERP education and training, research and collaboration with government departments and businesses to address the innovation needs of their stakeholders and to achieve reasonable returns for their own sustainability.
The SAP ERP courses bridges the ICT scarce skills gap between university and industry by giving graduates business skills and understanding of business systems; attribute that are greatly required by companies.
The programme is made possible by SAP through its Universities Alliance department which empowers universities to transfer the SAP skills and knowledge to students and academics worldwide.
“The cost of training for these skills in the market is very expensive” says Ansen. “Students or academics who acquire these skills become globally competitive in the job market as these skills are not location-bound.”
Through CPUT’s membership of the Universities Alliance the university is able to transfer the skills and knowledge to its academic staff and students at no cost. CPUT students only pay for certification examination fee at discounted rates. Students who decide to undertake the certification examination, CERPIA staff take them through the programme to ensure that they are adequately prepared.
Most big companies, government departments and parastatals run their business processes on SAP software.
Ansen adds that students fail to obtain SAP certificates because many cannot afford the examinations cost.
“We therefore call on potential sponsors to support students or graduates to acquire these scarce skills certificates in order to boost their chances of employment.”
For more information contact the CERPIA team, Jerry Ansen: ansenj@cput.ac.za (0214603102), Linda Julie: juliel@cput.ac.za (021) 4603039 or Afia Darkwa: darkwaa@cput.ac.za (0214603964).
