We have trained more mobile development engineers than any other company in South Africa. We have trained a total of 148 graduates, and all of them are currently employed. Our students came from these Africa countries, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The Problem
Africa follows behind the other continents in technology, for example, in 2016, African tech startups raised a mere $129 million compared to $69,11 billion in the US. The worldwide total deal funding for 2016 amounted to $127 billion according to KPMG Insights. There's only one unicorn in the African tech scene, Jumia, the first tech startup to surpass $1 billion in market value. These stats are shocking and sad at the same time considering that the African population accounts for 16% of the world population compared to North America's 7%.
Most of the training companies in South Africa offer the traditional Information Technology certification courses from Microsoft or Cisco. The students graduating from these institutions pass the exams using brain dumps, they hold the certifications but know little or nothing about the subjects on which they hold the certifications. Brain dumps usage is widespread and so common that it's an unwritten rule that you will not pass the exam without using them.
The Solution
Peruzal was born out of extensive industry experience in training these recognized certifications. Our name reflected our core values. Peruzal was derived from the word perusal, meaning the action of reading or examining something deeply. We wanted to change how training is conducted, we ventured to create a company that offers the latest technology training in mobile and web technologies on par with the leading training institutions in the US.
Our goal was to offer unparalleled training to web developers, designers, software engineers, startups and entrepreneurs and equip them with latest technology skills in a matter of weeks. Our target was the busy professionals that needed to gain up to date technology skills in the quickest time possible by offering them world class education without having to spend months reading books or taking cheap and amateur Udemy courses to update their skills.Our courses were on par with similar boot camp courses in the US but at a fraction of the cost. On average, the mobile app development courses for Android and iOS costs more than $10 000.
Our courses were designed to focus less on the theory but let the students spend more time on practical work. Every student that attended the mobile app development course had to build an app. Every student that attended our game development course had to develop a real game by the end of the course. We were not going to give certificates only for completing a course, the certificates of completion were to be earned. Students had to demonstrate competence in the subject area. Every course was created with live guides with up to date information on the subject, these guides could be updated whilst we were in class with new information and be published and live in a matter of minutes. Six months after training support came standard with any course. Our students had access to a dedicated course Slack channel and could ask a question at any time from their instructor.
Where We Are Now
We initially started in the Mother City, Cape Town, but with the growing demand of our courses, we opened offices in the City of Gold, Johannesburg, South Africa in 2014 and we partnered with Regus (they offer on-demand spaces) to deliver courses anywhere else in South Africa.
We offer a range of courses in mobile development, game development, security, databases and web development. Since then, we have grown and expanded our reach and now offer consulting services in developing mobile apps, software development, web application load testing, database performance and sql tuning, and mobile application security and penetration testing.
