Dear Ms Lekaba,

A short proposal — Pamoja Workplace-Ready, white-labelled into IAAE

I run Pamoja Cyber Academy. We are an Africa-built training provider focused on one outcome: turning school leavers and TVET graduates into cyber analysts who can hold their own on day 1 in a Security Operations Centre. Our platform is built and live at cyberpro.abacusai.app.

I have followed GrowthCode’s work with Black-owned QSEs and the structural support FNB has put behind it. Pamoja is not yet at the R10M–50M turnover band that GrowthCode targets, so this letter is not an application to the cohort. It is a proposal to plug a missing module into your wider IAAE ecosystem — the masterclasses, ESD programmes and corporate-sponsored summits that you already deliver.

The gap we close

South Africa’s expanded youth unemployment rate sits at 46.1% for ages 15–34 (Stats SA, Q1 2025). Africa-wide there are roughly 20,000 certified cyber professionals against tens of thousands of unfilled roles (ISC2, 2025). The blocker is rarely interest — it is the workplace-readiness gap between training and a paying job.

Pamoja’s Workplace-Ready programme covers the eight skills that determine whether a graduate keeps their first job: written communication, ticketing hygiene, shift handover discipline, CV literacy, the technical interview, professional ethics, financial literacy, and job-search tactics. It is delivered self-paced over six weeks and ends with a verifiable digital letter that recruiters can authenticate by code.

What we propose

A 100-learner pilot, white-labelled into one IAAE cohort or summit of your choosing. We can run it as IAAE-branded, co-branded, or as a Pamoja module inside an existing IAAE programme — your call.

Commercials: R200 per learner for the pilot (R20,000 total for 100 learners), discounted from our standard R250 institutional rate. Subsequent cohorts settle at R150–R250 depending on volume. White-label rights are negotiable.

No long-term lock-in. If learners and your team are not satisfied at the end of the pilot, we walk away with no further obligation on either side.

Why this is honest, and why we will not waste your time

We do not promise placements. We commit to five concrete things: a curriculum refreshed every quarter against ISC2/CompTIA/SETA-QCTO updates; a permanent Employer Advisory Council that any IAAE corporate sponsor can sit on for free; a verifiable graduate letter; a pipeline of warm introductions to Council partners; and a free retake within 12 months for any learner who does not land an interview.

That last one bounds our liability honestly — the cost of a retake — and aligns our incentives with the learner.

Where this could go for IAAE and FNB

B-BBEE Skills Development category points are easier to bank than ESD investment, and FNB’s GrowthCode beneficiaries (R10–50M Black-owned firms) need exactly this kind of staff training to stay competitive as cyber pressure on their own operations climbs. A successful pilot positions Pamoja as a ready-to-deploy ESD vehicle for FNB-funded cohorts targeting GrowthCode’s own beneficiary network.

For IAAE specifically, this is one more measurable outcome — a certificate, a verifiable letter, an analyst-ready graduate — to add to your sponsor reporting.

Next step

A 30-minute call to walk you through the platform live, the cohort flow, and one of three IAAE programmes where we think it would slot in cleanly. I am ready to do the pilot inside the next quarter if it lands well with you.

Thank you for the time.

Sincerely,

Adrian Kolombeki

Founder, Pamoja Cyber Academy

[email protected]

cyberpro.abacusai.app · pamoja-cyber.abacusai.app