Three ODID MPhil students and team win 2017 Geneva Challenge with jobs app
A team of masters students including three MPhil students, Fuaad Coovadia, Sakhe Mkosi and Keitumetse-Kabelo Murray, have won the 2017 Geneva Challenge for their proposal for a skills-centred mobile learning application intended to address key issues in the South African labour market.
The app, Umvuzo, links jobseekers with employers, allowing jobseekers to upskill themselves through training modules delivered in a gamified process, and employers to access the job characteristics of the app users in order to make better judgements about who to employ.
The Geneva Challenge invites teams of graduate students from around the world to devise innovative and pragmatic solutions to key international issues. The 2017 edition of the challenge explored how challenges posed by employment can be tackled to foster social and economic development.
A total of 135 project entries were submitted to the 2017 challenge by teams from around the world. The winners were awarded 10,000 CHF in prize money.