PRESS RELEASE
October 2009

Whilst attending a Business College in Braamfontein Johannesburg, Soweto born Dipuo Mokwili read an advertisement that was going to change any thoughts she had on a career path. The ad campaign was place by the leading training providers in the Information Communication and Technology Sector (ICT) in South Africa.

Having had no formal computer training and little experience did not deter this feisty young woman from applying to do a NQF Level Four. The one year course focuses on the technical ability in the areas of media and topologies, protocols and standards, network implementation and network support culminating in receiving Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) certification, which allows the student to enter a career in the ICT sector with the necessary skills to successfully troubleshoot desktop environments running on the Microsoft Windows operating system.

On receiving certification Dipuo was employed by South Africa’s leading branded assembler and distributor of PCs, notebooks and related products as an IT Multimedia Technician, a position she still holds today. When asked why she joined that particular organisation she stated. “It is big and adventurous and offers me the ability to grow in the ICT arena.”

Dipuo feels that career guidance and in particular, ICT career guidance should be provided at schools and believes that more women would then look to a career in the sector. She also firmly believes that it is important to have a role model to look up to and in Dipuo’s case, her role model is Torque IT’s sales and marketing director Tebogo Makgatho.

Dipuo stated that Tebogo entered a largely male dominated arena and has moved through the ranks to be widely recognised and admired as a businesswoman whilst still managing to retain her most important role, that of being a single mum. She also went on to say that Tebogo is highly focused on empowering the youth and in particular women.

When asked what the greatest lesson her mother Cornelia, a retired nursery school teacher and her late father Frans, a former priest instilled in her and her siblings, Dipuo simply said “that we should always go for what we want and that determination breeds success.”

At the tender age of twenty three year and fondly called Dikotapili when growing up, which means thin person in Setswana, this slight of build women with steely determination is learning all she can about the ICT industry and ultimately wants to establish her own IT company .