Michael Roberts, owner of Khonology, has been named the 2016 Job Creator of the Year at the Entrepreneur of the Year competition sponsored by Sanlam and Business/Partners awards ceremony held in Johannesburg this morning. Roberts was recognised due to the significant role he is playing in bridging the gap between academia and corporate expectations for graduates entering the workforce.

Founded in early 2013 in response to the skills shortages in South African technology landscape, Khonology is a multi-faceted African services company that provides world-class business solutions with the vision of empowering Africa through the upskilling of local talent and the creation of employment opportunities.

Khonology is carrying out this vision by allocating local talent to projects, which also drives employment throughout the continent. The candidates that are deployed to projects are trained with a particular focus on technological and financial skills which are required within the broader financial services industry.

Although the chosen candidates already have the relevant academic qualifications, these individuals are often not perceived as being attractive to employers, as they do not have the necessary professional experience. Khonology trains and converts this raw talent into competent and hardworking problem solvers for clients, specialising in delivering projects focused on the following streams; data intelligence and reporting, trade/transaction applications, reconciliation, CRM, finance and accounting systems.

With the company having already directly impacted over 120 individuals, with 100 being employed by Khonology over three years, the judging panel was impressed that Khonology has managed to show impressive results in a relatively short period of time.

“Michael is clearly onto something unique here, in that he’s recruiting individuals based on their mind sets and qualifications, and refining their professional skills in order to develop more well-rounded employees that can be better marketed to big corporate employers," explains the judges.

“Certain accountants, for example, have all the necessary qualifications, but cannot meet the clients’ needs because they lack practical exposure. This is a situation where a business like Khonology can make a major difference and literally create employment for individuals who may otherwise be seen as ‘unfit’ for the corporate world."

Roberts believes that this award brings to light the gap between small and big business in terms of the value chain. “Entrepreneurship in South Africa comes with its share of challenges and requires resilience in tough conditions. I believe small and big business need to embrace the notion of working together to explore emerging trends which will in turn help small and medium enterprises to better contribute to the eco-system.

“Winning this award is a multiplication factor for my business in terms of branding and recognition, and speaks volumes about what we trying to achieve by highlighting the successful change that we have managed to bring about thus far,” he concludes.