Kim Palmer

Kim Palmer is the award-winning founder of On The Ball College and WeTrainICT and the newly launched Learn2Boom online training portal. On The Ball College is accredited through MICT Seta and training partners with Microsoft, Oracle Academy, AWS, CompTIA, CertiPort and Pearson VUE Prometric, and gives teenagers and young adults from underprivileged backgrounds the opportunity to study critically needed IT skills that leads to employment through her work placement programme.

Kim is also the chairman of On The Ball Foundation and founder of the well-known and fast-growing Women in ICT annual conference. ICT is a sector where women are grossly underrepresented — only 23% of tech jobs are held by women in South Africa. Palmer says that this results in many misperceptions that young women hold about ICT, which she is making an effort to change. She says the solution to promote inclusivity in the local tech sector lies in encouraging and supporting women to pursue careers in it. She believes that young women in the sector should explore and empower themselves.

Technology is growing, and it’s growing at a fast pace, and you shouldn’t be putting any restrictions on yourselves. My advice to young women is to go and grab any sort of technology they find fascinating and take it further, because there is so much out there.

Kim, who has a background in IT, started her first computer business at the age of 19 and seven years later went on to establish On The Ball College. Kim volunteered as a mentor at the Alan Gray Foundation, provided training at the Haven Night Shelters and has been involved in various HIV/Aids awareness projects. She continues to be involved in youth initiatives and uplifting the community through her foundation.

Kim works tirelessly to inspire her students to believe in themselves by giving them the tools to create a life they never thought possible. “You can only dream about what you have been exposed to. We need to educate and inspire our youth so that they understand that IT and technology are career options. “I want our youth to dream big and in turn, those creative ideas will become a reality in our country...it did for me.”