By SAVIOUS KWINIKA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE attainment of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Morocco has received a major boost after SAP, the global software company, organised its first Social Sabbatical in the North African country.
The initiative is ongoing until November 4.
The SAP Social Sabbatical, a pilot project in 2012 and now a globally recognized CSR initiative, is a portfolio of volunteer programs in which SAP employees make available skills, expertise and know-how in single, short-term missions.
Selected employees dedicate a month of their time to supporting and empowering emerging market organizations in the areas of education and entrepreneurship.
The Moroccan leg will have 12 high-level SAP employees working with four local organisations –  Enactus Morocco, Moroccan Center for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (MCISE), Start-Up Morocco and the United States Agency for International Development Career Centre.
The organisations promote innovation, social entrepreneurship, economic growth and employability of young Moroccans.
Frederic Alran, Managing Director of SAP Afrique Francophone, said the Social Sabbatical supports and complements the 17 SGDs of the UN by ensuring no one was left behind as the modern workforce prepared to interesting and rewarding jobs.
He said SAP adopted the idea that training workers in a digital economy was its corporate responsibility.
SAP believes large companies have a moral obligation to initiate people into the world economy, whatever their origins, the executive said.
“The launch of social sabbaticals in Morocco perfectly complements our broader social development skills and initiatives in Morocco and provides local organizations with global skills and ideas to stimulate local development,” said Alran.
“In the globally integrated economy as we know it today, SAP needs leaders and talents who understand the global implications of our world that has digitized at a tremendous rate, adopting the idea of diversity and lifelong learning and committed to embody our vision and leadership principles.”
Meanwhile, of all countries participating in the SAP Skills for Africa,continental initiative for digital skills development, Morocco is the most committed with more than 165 000 young people.
More than half of them women have been trained in basic skills in coding for the year 2016 alone.
– CAJ News