How Naspers Labs and CAPACITI Are Building a Genuine Pipeline to Meaningful Employment

Chanél Oldfield, Chief Executive Officer of CAPACITI, believes attitude matters more than credentials. The organisation has trained over 8,000 young people for tech careers – most walked in with just a matric.

Chanél Oldfield has a simple but radical belief: attitude matters more than credentials.

Walk into CAPACITI with your matric certificate and a genuine hunger to learn, and the organisation will find a place for you. As its Chief Executive Officer, she is less interested in what young people already have and far more interested in what they are willing to become.

“Don't let fear be a hindrance to you,” she says directly. “Don't let fear of technology be a hindrance to you.”

It is a simple message, but it carries the weight of everything CAPACITI has been built to do.

What CAPACITI actually is

CAPACITI is the tech career accelerator at UVU Africa. It has become one of the most important pipelines of young tech talent in the country.

To date, CAPACITI has trained over 8 000 young people and supported over 1 000 entrepreneurs. More than 67% of those are women.

Those are not just numbers. They represent a deliberate, consistent effort to build a South African tech workforce that looks like South Africa.

The programmes span DevOps, cybersecurity, AI enablement, and entrepreneurship, including a dedicated pathway for the creative sector. Most require nothing more than a matric and an age between 18 and 35.

The low barriers are not an accident. They are the point.

The carrots and the real prize

Chanél has a way of cutting through the noise when she talks about what CAPACITI really does.

“The technical skills are just like carrots,” she says.

What she means is this: learning to code or work in cybersecurity is not the end goal. It is the vehicle.

The real prize is what happens when a young person works through something difficult, figures out a problem they have never encountered before, and discovers that they are more capable than they thought.

“We are building problem-solving, grit, confidence, and curiosity,” she explains. “Those are the skills that will serve a young person not just in their first job, but across their entire career.”

This philosophy – treating technical training as a tool for developing the whole person, runs through everything CAPACITI does.

It is also what makes the organisation's partnership with Naspers Labs such a natural fit.

Why the Naspers Labs partnership works

Naspers Labs and CAPACITI found each other because their goals were already aligned. Both organisations are focused on building a genuine pipeline from youth potential to meaningful employment, and both understand that you cannot do that at scale without the right partners.

The partnership has allowed CAPACITI to grow its reach and deepen its impact, amplifying a message that Chanél believes South Africa desperately needs to hear: that the technology gap is real, that Africa risks being left behind, and that the young people sitting in CAPACITI's programmes right now are the answer to both problems.

Looking ahead to AI

Chanél is not just thinking about the jobs of today. She is preparing young South Africans for what comes next.

“We need Africa to lead,” she says.

With AI and agentic AI already reshaping industries globally, CAPACITI's programmes are designed to ensure that South Africa's young talent is not catching up to a world that has already moved on, but walking alongside it, ready to shape what comes next.

It is an ambitious vision. But then, that is exactly the kind of ambition that has driven CAPACITI to train thousands of young people who were once told the tech world was not for them.

A direct message to the private sector

Chanél's call to South African businesses is clear: investing in training pipelines like CAPACITI is not charity. It is a strategy.

As the demand for tech skills grows and the global pace of innovation accelerates, the companies that will thrive are the ones that invest now in building the workforce they will need tomorrow.

The talent is here. The curiosity is here. The grit is here. All it takes is a partner willing to back it.

Ready to take the first step? Find out more about about Naspers Labs at naspers.com/naspers-labs and how to apply at CAPACITI's programmes, visit https://capaciti.org.za/

This post is sponsored by Naspers Labs and produced by Media24 Advertising and Content Marketing for News24