Skills as infrastructure

Skills are a critical part of a country’s infrastructure 

Infrastructure is no longer just physical assets. It has become the interconnected network of knowledge, skills and human capital needed to operate, maintain and grow essential systems. In technology, humans are critical to digital transformation. If companies want it to last, they need to invest in skills the same way they invest in platforms. 

This is why Mint treats youth enablement as a core part of digital transformation. Programmes like the Ubuntu Partner Programme have been developed to seed talent, create employment and help build an inclusive economy that scales with technology. 

In this article, we look at how training and transformation go hand-in-hand and why Mint’s approach to skills is a long-term strategy.  

 

What this article answers: 

  • What is Mint’s Ubuntu Partner Programme and how does it work?
  • How youth training supports digital transformation in South Africa.
  • Why upskilling is essential infrastructure for public sector innovation.
  • How digital transformation projects can create sustainable job pipelines.
  • What inclusive transformation looks like in action.

 

What is the Ubuntu Partner Programme? 

Launched as part of Mint’s commitment to inclusive growth, the Ubuntu Partner Programme trains, employs and supports young South Africans, many of whom come from underserved communities, and gives them the opportunity to take part in real technology projects. 

In a recent digitization rollout with a large South African public hospital, 100 youth were trained and deployed to digitize more than 800,000 patient records. These were not simulations or internships but full-time, salaried roles with structured mentorship and performance tracking built in.  

The result was that the work was done at a speed needed to ensure the project met expected timelines, and that people were given the opportunity to expand their skillsets and gain much-needed workplace experience.  

 

Why is youth training critical to digital transformation?  

Many modernization projects battle with both the adoption of the technology itself, and local capacity. Skilled talent is often centralized or unavailable, especially in remote or high-unemployment areas, which inhibits project timelines and costs. 

If companies create trained teams from the community itself, you are working towards removing this barrier. The Ubuntu recruits, for example, became part of the project ecosystem which made transformation both sustainable and possible. It also strengthened the project’s legitimacy by involving people who live in the communities the solution was designed to serve. 

 

What happens when the programme ends? 

Skills development is not a once-off engagement with Mint. The company provides pathways into longer-term employment within Mint and with external partners. Many Ubuntu alumni now work in support roles, junior engineering posts or in customer success teams. Some return as peer trainers, others move into different industries thanks to their transferrable digital skills. 

The value here lies in the impact of skills development, as it opens the door for people to move into new opportunities and roles that previously they may not have considered, or been eligible for. With the Ubuntu project’s focus on digital skills across mentorship, CV and interview coaching and Microsoft-aligned certifications, it meant that youth were also given invaluable digital skills that are critically short in the current climate.  

 

People power progress 

Transformation doesn’t actually start with technology. Yes, it’s the fuel, but the real transformation starts with people and the belief that every project can create more than just output, it can create opportunities.  

At Mint, skills are treated the same way as infrastructure. They’re part of every scope, strategy and solution, because we know that no system scales without the people to run it.