Digital entrepreneurs: FastTrack empowers African youth

Xaxis, the outcome media specialist of GroupM, has announced the continuation of its FastTrack programme for 2023 after the success of its pilot initiative in 2021. The programme aims to empower the company to strengthen its team while also addressing the ongoing employment challenges in the region.

Xaxis collaborated with Steffan van der Male, head of iHub Africa, to train underprivileged African youth in basic digital media skills, as well as general personal and business skills.

The FastTrack programme provides young Africans with employment and skills development opportunities in digital media, an industry that has been overlooked due to perceived entry barriers.

Xaxis South Africa faced a challenge in growing its team due to the lack of candidates with the desired basic digital media skill set, despite the staggering youth unemployment rate in South Africa, which stands at 60%.

The programme is a key mechanism to build bridges between corporates and young African talent.

The successful completion of a nine-month iHub course enabled graduates Nvelwenhle Ncube, Camilla Moyo, and Immaculate Moyo to enrol in the Xaxis FastTrack programme. The South Africa team provided access to a wealth of resources, such as webinars, learning material, and Google-certified exams, to create a successful learning framework for the pilot programme.

The training allowed the graduates to progress and achieve stable employment within the Xaxis programmatic team. The success of the pilot FastTrack programme has ensured the continuation of this initiative, with Xaxis South Africa planning to collaborate again with iHub Africa in 2023 to offer four more candidates the same opportunity.

Ursula Strauss, managing director of Xaxis South Africa, said that there is a huge education, skill, and employment gap in South Africa, and the FastTrack programme helps to bridge it by providing young people with opportunities to change their own and their family’s circumstances. The initiative allows them to dream more, learn more, and become more.

Xaxis transforms digital media into business outcomes by combining innovative AI technology, advanced cross-channel solutions, and dedicated programmatic expertise to develop and optimise success metrics that connect directly to their clients’ business goals.

Founded in 2011, Xaxis is GroupM’s outcome media specialist, serving more than 3 000 brands in 48 markets around the world.

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