Northern Cape Youth ICT and Business VacWork

Brought to you by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT)

About The VacWork

The week-long programme provides a simulated or real-working environment for youth in the province to acquire working experience in the ICT scene while building their own technological startups.

During the programme, the youngsters work together to build a solution based on a predetermined theme that addresses a common issue in the Northern Cape province. Business development is of great focus and accordingly, the participants are taken through a Business Model Canvas session in which they create and map business cases for the solutions being developed.

To date, up to 4 annual editions with 288 scholars have been conducted in different parts of the Northern Cape province:

  • Nababeep in 2016
  • Rietfontein in 2017
  • Prieska in 2018
  • Carnarvon in 2019
Register Now
  • Location Springbok, Northern Cape
  • Date 05-09 Dec 2022
  • Time 9am - 4pm
  • Seats Up to 50 youth

Why You Should Join?

Participants of the VacWork will be challenged to come up with new solutions for their community in Springbok.

Great Mentors

The participants will be assisted by the facilitators, coordinators and stakeholders.

01

Meet New People

You will meet new friends, collegeus and potential co-founders of you next big idea.

02

Provincial Event

Each year the VacWork program goes to a diiferent town in the Northern Cape.

03

Get Inspired

Youngsters work together to build a solution that addresses a common issue in our province.

04

Build your Network

You get to network with relevant players in the Innovation and technological space.

05

Gain Experience

Participants will get to gain the experience of how it feels to work in a startups.

06
10

Mentors

50

Seats

5

Prizes

5

Days

VacWork Schedules

Our Schedual for the week

09H00 - 16H00 DATAQUEST

The VacWork will kick off with a dataquest where participants will be provided with datasets to study, come with story angles and the present findings from the data. These findings will be used to create the new solutions for the week.


Teams will be formed and then decide on a focus of technologies. Each team will come up with a team name and assign roles to each member of the team.
A Business Model Canvas session will be presented in which teams must create Business Model Canvas maps for solutions. As part of home, teams must find at least 15 customers for solutions to be developed.
Location: Springbok, NC
09H00 - 16H00 Career Tuesday

With tools having been installed into the computers, teams will start working on on their solutions that have been formulated on day 1 of the programme.
Industry professionals will be invited to give presentations and engage the participants on career related matters.
Development of the solutions will continue. Tech Debate topics will be presented.

Location: Springbok, NC
09H00 - 16H00 Building

With guidance from the mentors, teams will increase efforts to build their solutions.

Location: Springbok, NC
09H00 - 16H00 Crunch Day

Last day of development for the solutions - teams also package their solutions in preparation for the presentations. Powerpoint slides will also be finalized.

Location: Springbok, NC
09H00 - 16H00 Awards

Teams must submit their project material ahead of the presentations. Presentation order will be communicated with the teams for presentations.

  • Final Presentations: Each team will have 6 minutes to present their solution with judges having 4 minutes to ask questions.

  • Tech Debate: Over a 60 minutes span, 10 debate teams(5 affirmative and 5 opposing) will debate and state cases based on the topic with this structure: One minute to state a case; 40 minutes for rebuttal; Last 10 minutes to state final cases.

  • Certificate Handout: Each participant will receive a certificate of participation at the end.

  • Awards Ceremony: Top projects and spot prizes will be given to teams and individuals of the VacWork programme

Location: Springbok, NC

Our Mentors

Get to know our Mentors for this years VacWork in Springbok.
You can also apply to become a Mentor, just click on the button below our current mentors

Creston Campher

Chairperson, NCDev Eocystem

Mr Kingsley Kgwedi

System Developer, Geekulcha

Mr Mixo Ngoveni

CEO, Geekulcha

Mr Tiyani Nghonyama

COO, Geekulcha

Apply to become a Mentor

Past Events

Here is some of our past VacWork events.

Nababeep - 2016

View details

Rietfontein - 2017

View details

Prieska - 2018

View details

Carnarvon - 2019

View details

The Partners

Meet our Partners and Sponsors for this years VacWork

Register Now

All participants for the 2022 VacWork in Springbok needs to register here.

Fill in the information to register for the Youth ICT and Business VacWork programme


  • 14 Long Street, Barkly West, NC, 8375
  • +27632373611
  • info@ncdev.co.za