BRICS Future Skills challenge
The youth of the BRICS nations are coming together to show how Future Skills will solve our most critical challenges.
From the 12th to the 15th of September 2023, South Africa will host 100’s of young people from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa who will compete to show off their solutions. Competitors will pitch their solutions in a “Lions Den” to the expert judges to the most pressing challenges we face today.
With thousands of attendees ranging from industry experts from critical sectors, multinational company representatives, the global public and government representatives from around the BRICS nations, the Future Skills Challenge 2023 is a perfect place to exhibit how your company contributes to the future.
Programme outline
Opening Ceremony and Day 1 challenges
Panel on Energy Innovations across BRICS
Panel on Health Innovations across BRICS
Challenges continue for competitors
Panel on Water Innovations across BRICS
Panel on Skills Dev Innovations across BRICS
“Lions Den”
Top 15 competitors from across BRICS nations pitch to the expert judges or “Lions”
Closing Ceremony and prize giving
Invite only: Network cocktails
Skills Areas for 2023:
South Africa will be hosting skills challenges in these areas:
- Aircraft Maintenance
- Agri IOT
- Building Information Modeling
- Cyber Security
- Data Science
- Digital Twin
- Drones
- Internet Marketing
- Manufacturing Robotics
- Mobile app development
- Renewable Energy
- Robotic Process Automation
Click the button below for a detailed description of each skill challenge.
Join the Challenge
The competition will take place from the 12th to the 15th of September 2023. Join hundreds of competitors from around the BRICS nations at Johannesburg Expo Centre and online as they compete to show off their skills.
The event:
The competition will take place from 12 to 15 September 2023.
Day 1: Opening ceremony and Day 1 Challenges
Day 2: Challenges
Day 3: Top 3 from each BRICS nation pitches to experts and judging
Day 4: Closing ceremony and prize giving
South African Medalists 2022
South Africa received 10 silver and bronze medals and 5 medals of excellence in 2022’s BRICS Future Skills Challenge. Congrats to all our South Africans.
Organising Committee
Mapule Ncanywa
Chair of the BRICS Business Council Skills Group. She also heads the Naspers Labs and serves on the Board for the FoodBev SETA
Sherrie Donaldson
As Secretariat - Sherrie is passionate about the impact skills can have on uplifting the people of South Africa
Joanne Brink
Founder & Entrepreneur of TechWays. Former positions at FPD and Endeavor. Qualified as CA with KPMG. Joanne is the Project Manager
Dr Ntebo Ngozwana
Serves on the BRICS Business Council Skills Group and is the Research Director at the Construction Industry Development Board
Lynne Wilmot
Serves on the BRICS Business Council Skills Group and is the HRD consultant for COEGA Development Corporation
Dale Jeevanantham
Currently works for the National Business Initiative. Previously he was the executive assistant to the CEO at Gauteng City Region Academy.
Experts
Ronny Mabokela - Mobile app
Ronny heads the Technopreneurship Centre at UJ and is a Applied Info Systems lecturer. He previously worked at Vodacom and Telkom.
Sihle Trolly - Digital twin
Sihle was the silver medal winner for Digital Twin in 2022. He is joined by Theo v Niekerk - a senior lecturer within the Mechatronics Engineering Department at Nelson Mandela University.
Heloise Meyer - Cyber Security
Heloise is a senior network specialist at SANREN, and previously worked at CSIR as a researcher.
Dr Sudesh Sivarasu - Manuf. robotics
Dr. Sudesh Sivarasu is a distinguished biomedical engineer, holding the prestigious DSI/NRF – SARChI South African Research Chair
Neil van Wyngaard - RPA
is an experienced Solutions Architect for EOH, skilled in SQL, SharePoint, .NET, Enterprise Software, ITIL, Agile Methodologies, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), BPM and RPA.
Dr Liphadzi Murendeni - BIM
is the Deputy Director at the Sustainable human settlement construction research centre at the University of Johannesburg. He is passionate about digital management and leadership in the built environment.
Ziphezinhle Gabuza - Agri IOT
Ziphezinhle or Boyzie serves as Luxescape Managing Director. He is a passionate farmer, devoted to nurturing the land, empowering farmers, and fostering a thriving agricultural ecosystem
Damian Mooney - Drones
Damien is currently the Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) Consultant at Nelson Mandela University. He is also a Mechanical Engineer. Airline Transport Pilot License. Instructors License. RPAS Pilot. RPAS Technician
Emmanuel Mhungu - Aircraft maintenance
Emmanuel is an aircraft maintenance engineer currently working for Starlite Aviation and I am also a National expert with the DHET.
Menzi Mhlongo - Internet Marketing
From Digify Africa. He is a renowned projects manager and Talents Durban Manager who has the ability to bring talent and funders together.
Gundo Maswime - Renewable Energy
Gundo is an Engineering Lecturer at University of Cape Town and also researcher in the Urban and Public Infrastructure Research Initiative
Dr Peter Olukanmi - Data Science
Is the leader of the Data Science and Computational Intelligence Research Cluster (D-CIRCLE) and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering Technology (DEET) at UJ.