Marlon Parker

Marlon Parker is the founder of Reconstructed Living Labs (RLabs) - a South African social entrepreneur who uses information communications technology (ICT) to empower communities, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and named by the Mail and Guardian as 1 of 300 young South Africans you have to take out to lunch. He was elected an Ashoka Fellow in 2014. Quotes There is no criteria to participate in any of the RLabs workshops, you just have to be unemployed, have time to attend all sessions and always smile. Marlon Parker launches RLabs Namibia The main aim of RLabs is to create spaces where people can be impacted, empowered, and transformed through HOPE, technology and innovation, training, and economic opportunities. We believe education is key to bringing about the eradication of poverty. RLabs is about equipping and building capacity in someone that gives that person hope. And once we’ve done that, figure out how to leverage that capacity to create something meaningful, such as a livelihood, a better job, or starting self-employment. *Our training ranges from basic computing stuff, basic entrepreneurship, small business management courses, and so forth, right up to coding, UI/UX, and some data analytics. The African continent is being flooded at the moment, with some of the big tech players grabbing good talent here for their businesses. We lose our developers very quickly because they can get three, four, or five times the salary at Google, Amazon, or Facebook. The other challenge that we face is when it comes to opportunities. Many of these companies are unwilling to take entry level developers and create a pipeline. Instead, they want to take the cream of the crop, the top-tier group. When Hope and Education Connect: An Interview with R Labs Founder Marlon Parker The adoption of mobile technology has given us the opportunity to scale our impact through leveraging this channel as a vehicle for change. As much as people use technology to communicate and to be informed, we believe we can also maximize it to drive education, entrepreneurship and development services to those who need it most. Everything we do is still core to our vision of developing [and transforming] through innovation, technology, education and entrepreneurship. More than 21,000 South Africans have participated in the program so far, which has been replicated in other countries, including the US, where they recently incorporated it Waco, Texas. Marlon Parker Stated External links Category:Academic staff of Cape Peninsula University of Technology Category:Social entrepreneurs Category:living people