Breaking Down Barriers: The Impact of the Cognizant Generation Australia Outreach Academy Program
In late 2022, Cognizant partnered with Generation Australia and MuleSoft to launch an intensive MuleSoft learning program. The goal was to bridge the skills gap and provide further training for individuals who had completed a 10-week Salesforce course with Generation Australia and expressed interest in learning MuleSoft.
The program targeted adults of all ages, aiming to prepare and support them in pursuing rewarding careers that would have otherwise been inaccessible. The ultimate objective was to place these students at Cognizant or with other MuleSoft partners or customers.
As someone who worked on the MuleSoft component of the program, I had the privilege of participating in the graduation ceremony for the 10 program students. The ceremony took place at a MuleSoft Meetup.
Following the Meetup, my colleague Scarlett Gilboy and I conducted interviews with the organizers, students, and mentors to delve into the program’s origins, goals, impact, student motivations, and mentor insights. While it’s not possible to include all the details here, you can watch the full interviews on the provided YouTube links.
During the interviews, Elham Abawi, the Cognizant Outreach organizer, emphasized the program’s commitment to building essential skills for the rapidly changing economy. By upskilling individuals, the program aimed to foster a digitally inclusive community and create more MuleSoft talent within Cognizant and its ecosystem of partners.
Dylan Turnball, Head of Partnerships at Generation Australia, explained that the program was driven by Cognizant’s desire to find creative and impactful ways to discover MuleSoft talent.
One of the program’s main goals was to address the widening digital skills gap and increase diversity in the sector. By providing motivated learners with opportunities for continued learning and meaningful careers in the ecosystem, the program aimed to unlock more employment opportunities and attract underrepresented groups.
Rakesh Kumar, the MuleSoft Delivery Leader at Cognizant, shared how the program came to fruition through collaboration among multiple organizations. They selected a cohort of 10 individuals for a mentor-mentee program led by Cognizant. The program started in October and has seen an 80% success rate in the students obtaining Developer certifications.
Laz Brown, the First Nations Industry Employment Engagement Manager, highlighted the program’s role in closing the digital skills gap. Traditional education models, such as high school to university, may not always provide the skills demanded by the industry. The program offers an alternative path, equipping individuals with industry-demand led skills and quicker training to fill the gaps.
The students we interviewed, Jyothi and Ashish, shared their motivations for joining the tech industry and pursuing MuleSoft. Jyothi, a mother of two with a passion for cooking, started with blogging and HTML, which sparked her curiosity about technology. Ashish appreciated the dynamic and challenging nature of the tech industry, and MuleSoft’s integration capabilities excited him. Both successfully completed Salesforce certifications and eagerly pursued MuleSoft.
Empowering women in tech was another significant aspect of the program, with seven out of the ten graduates being women. Jyothi emphasized the importance of raising awareness and promoting gender equality in the industry to encourage more women to pursue tech careers.
Certification played a crucial role in the students’ holistic learning journey as it validated and organized their knowledge. It also provided employers with recognition and demonstrated dedication and persistence.
Mentors like Jazz, Nivetha, and Amann found fulfillment in helping others explore their passions and careers in IT.
To watch each interview in its entirety, you can watch the interviews below:
Although I can’t fit all of their answers onto one post, I will highlight some questions and answers here.
Q: What advice or encouragement would you give to those organizations who maybe are hesitant to take on a graduate and what would be the benefits of hiring one of these very motivated individuals onto their team?
Rakesh: “What I would say is the key word here is resilience. These are the people who are hardened by the circumstances and they come from a background of various different Industries.
So what I would say: hire them for passion and resilience because anybody can learn certification, anybody can learn to grow.”
Having met many of the students either virtually or in person, I can also vouch for all the qualities that Rakesh mentioned.
I was happy to be able to interview three of them in person.
Q: What is one piece of advice that you would give to someone wanting to start their journey into the MuleSoft ecosystem?
Ashish: “Just start with fundamentals, from the MuleSoft website. It is free and self-paced; anyone can learn it.”
Harsh: “Yeah, try to have clear knowledge about what you’re going to study, and try to make use of the online resources.
Try to seek out your mentors, attend any of the MuleSoft meetups and try to develop your network, that would be helpful.”
As Scarlett said: “To summarize this, use these resources available to you, take advantage of the opportunity, build your network and celebrate your wins and your success.”
Q: Could you tell us a bit about what your role as a mentor entailed in this program?
Nivetha: “As a mentor in this program my role was to help the mentees understand the concepts even better. And specifically the fundamentals of MuleSoft because MuleSoft is such a vast technology. When you help someone in the fundamentals at the very first stage it’s going to be very easy for them to work on the advanced applications in the future.
So that was one of my roles and whatever doubts the mentees may encounter or whatever issues that they may encounter in the program, I was there to help them with that.”
Q: What has been your biggest takeaway from this experience and what would you tell others who are thinking of becoming mentors?
Amann: “It gives us mentors in terms of putting our teaching skills and also refreshing your skills.
I think that’s one of the major things and also trying to motivate others and try to include broader people into the MuleSoft ecosystem. That motivated me a lot.”
Nivetha: “My best takeaway from this program would be that I was able to realize how much progress I have made in this technology.
The fact that you’re able to share the experience and share the knowledge that you have with not only with MuleSoft but with any particular technology and to be able to deliver it to them and seeing them grow is very enlightening. So that is my takeaway.”
Jazz: “Yeah, the key takeaway for me is when you have passion there are not any barriers for your learning. Sometimes we feel let down that you know what hard life we have, but people from different backgrounds want to excel in an IT career path, looking at them, we feel like our problems are nothing in front of what they face. So that’s my biggest takeaway, and yeah as I said if you have the passion and the determination to achieve.”
I walked away feeling inspired by everyone who took part in this program.
My key takeaway is that no matter what obstacles or adversities you face in life, there are opportunities to change the path you are on.
I believe these students represent a growing segment of potential candidates who should not be overlooked. They are the true meaning of a Trailblazer:
‘Someone who wants to innovate and deliver success with Salesforce. Someone who may not have all the answers, but has the confidence to build new skills and grow.’
For employers who find themselves saying that they can’t find new talent in the market, or that they are looking to hire, go no further than looking at some of these resilient and skilled individuals.
At the time of writing this blog piece, 3 out of the 10 graduates have been placed.
If you are currently looking for MuleSoft or Salesforce talent, please reach out to Rakesh Kumar. He is in charge of placements, and will tell you about what skills and experience each candidate has.
If you are interested in learning more about integration and MuleSoft, check out the free self paced Integration Associate course and certification.
