Since the summer semester of 2021, erp4students, a program of the Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences, has been working with Kern AG to help Afghan students in Kabul and Herat build up their professional independence. With the partner program Kite Runner, Kern AG counts on the more than 15 years of online training experience of the erp4students program of TH Brandenburg. The goal is to train Afghan students on site in SAP and at the same time prepare them for the international job market - and thereby build up professional and economic independence.
As part of the erp4students program, the Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences is working with Kern AG to offer Afghan students the opportunity to receive training in the use of the latest SAP applications on the one hand and, on the other, to better position themselves in the medium term on the local and international market. erp4students is thus supporting the "Kite Runner" partner program developed by Kern AG around Joscha Greuel by offering good training structures and promoting development opportunities despite extremely difficult local conditions, thus enabling Afghan students to become economically independent.
The academic erp4students program, designed specifically for students, helps to build up and internalize SAP skills that are in high demand in the business world, thus increasing the students' career opportunities in the SAP cosmos. All courses are taught seven days a week by SAP-certified tutors. Access to a live SAP system and all learning materials is guaranteed throughout the course duration of approximately four months.
In addition to theory, extensive practical case studies prepare participants for work in industry and provide an in-depth understanding of various SAP applications. Successful completion of the case studies leads to a university certificate, which also gives participants the opportunity to receive up to six ECTS credits for their studies at their home university.
Kern AG is one of the leading software manufacturers for corporate planning in the areas of controlling, finance, sales and logistics as well as reporting in Excel. Kern AG solutions have been providing an interface between Microsoft Excel and SAP for over 20 years. The Kite Runner program is based on the work of Joscha Greuel, which he is now expanding with the support of Kern AG and further intensifying together with erp4students and TH Brandenburg.
Afghanistan is home to a large number of talented and well-trained IT workers and developers, while Germany, for example, has a shortage of skilled workers in these areas. Afghanistan has lacked a stable system and corresponding training structures not only since the Taliban took power. Kite Runner acts as a transcontinental development program to make the trained specialists ready and attractive for the international labor market. In addition, Kite Runner is already a profitable business with high-caliber software engineers recruited from the university environment - they are mostly lecturers.
For Kite Runner, Kern AG is working with two software teams in the Afghan cities of
Kabul and
Herat. In order to provide all trainees there with the best possible training and learning conditions, premises with good internet connections and on-site support are provided. The development office in Herat has already existed since 2019, while the one in Kabul has been under construction since 2021. erp4students supports Kern AG in this project and, with its e-learning approach, forms not only a supplement, but also a basic building block of the digital education and training concept of the transcontinental partner program.
Through the cooperation of erp4students with the
German-speaking SAP User Group e.V. (DSAG), Kern AG as a DSAG member company became aware of the TH Brandenburg program. It quickly became clear that erp4students, as an SAP training program for students, was the ideal complement to the project-oriented approach of the Kite Runner program on site in Afghanistan.
In order to drive the expansion of the development office in Kabul, Kern AG selected seven students from Kabul University in a two-stage selection process to provide them with training as SAP-certified ABAP developers. Part of this training was participation in the erp4students course program (TS410, ABAP1 and ABAP2) in the summer semester of 2021. Six of the seven participants are now working as junior ABAP developers on Kern AG projects in Kabul. The successful start of a long-term cooperation.
Consulting and development companies looking for support from our ABAP expertise are welcome to contact
Joscha Greuel, Kite Runner.