Four cohorts, one graduation, and freelance careers already underway.
Learnio partnered with Afrika Tikkun and the Digital Youth ICT Academy on a hands-on Graphic Design and Digital Marketing pilot in South Africa. By the first graduation, more than half of the cohort was already earning.
One of Learnio's most visible South African pilots to date.
Afrika Tikkun is a long established South African non-profit, founded in 1994, that works to break the cycle of township and rural poverty through a holistic cradle-to-career model. Its skills arm, Afrika Tikkun Services, has a strong track record in digital-skills training and job placement across its Centres of Excellence in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
Learnio joined Afrika Tikkun, alongside the Digital Youth ICT Academy, to deliver a practical digital-skills pilot in Graphic Design and Digital Marketing, pairing structured curriculum with local mentorship and freelancing readiness. The pilot ran across four cohorts in the second half of 2025, mentored by Bakang Matsomo and Zanele Nkosi, with Mimoza Ymeri as Learnio programme manager.
It has become a reference case for how the Learnio model turns training into early income generation, celebrated at a graduation milestone in early 2026 and featured in Learnio's alumni storytelling, including the Chair to Chair series.
At the first graduation, Learnio announced 59 graduates, with over half already engaged in income-generating activity through freelancing, small digital services, or employment.
The first episode of Learnio's Chair to Chair series sat down with graduate Princess Ndlela to talk about growth, discipline, and turning the opportunity into a freelance career.
The essentials, from the Learnio projects record.
Positioned as an ongoing relationship, not a one-off.
- Strong first-cohort results and alumni profiling support a follow-on intake.
- The delivery model of local mentor plus Learnio curriculum plus freelancing readiness repeats across additional Afrika Tikkun centres in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
At the first graduation milestone, over half of the 59 graduates were already engaged in income-generating activity. Detailed per-student earnings are tracked in cohort records rather than published.