Over the last two years we’ve seen companies lean hard into digital transformation but one aspect of that journey that is crucial to its success is training.

While digital transformation can streamline many aspects of a business, it’s vital that this transformation and employee training go hand in hand. After all, what good is a fancy new system if nobody knows how to use it effectively or understands how it can benefit them.

For this reason Absa launched a cloud incubator programme in March with the goal of equipping 1 500 staff members from across the African continent with cloud-computing skills. To date, 1 496 employees have completed the training and a further 280 are expected to complete the programme by the end of 2021.

“At Absa, our goal is to ensure that employees are equipped with the right skills and, through the cloud incubator programme, we were able to bridge the skills gap in cloud technologies,” explains chief information officer at Absa, Ebrahim Samodien.

While this helps employees, Samodien says this training will also help the firm improve how it serves customers. This is likely because by understanding how cloud-computing works, employees may see a new way of doing things that hasn’t been seen before.

In fact, that’s exactly why Absa launched this programme.

“The key outcome from the cloud incubator programme was for participants to be able to identify cloud opportunities and to create more efficient, scalable services and solutions. The employees can now use their understanding and knowledge to drive the broadscale digital transformation in the bank,” Absa said in a press release.

Of course, cloud-computing skills are largely transferrable so these employees now also have those skills they can add to their CV.

“Since the establishment of the cloud incubator initiative, I feel like Absa is really taking the cloud revolution seriously. Prior to the Cloud Incubator initiative, I used to feel like cloud computing was just a talking point,” says Phumlani Mbabela, a lead product engineer at Absa who took part in the programme. “The initiative has also helped me to improve my cloud proficiency and technical skills,” they added.

This is a great initiative from Absa and we hope to see this programme continue every year.