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SA Career Guide - KZN 2020 Issue
In an ever changing world, having a skill set that makes one employable is critical. With a large portion of South Africa’s youth from lower income households, basic skills that will make a person employable, not only here but worldwide, is vital. While the concept of Employability as a commodity is closely linked to government policy in which graduates represent a valuable resource in the increasingly knowledge based economy, it is also about the ability of graduates to be able to respond to the changing needs of a rapidly developing labour market is seen as vital for economic growth. This is where ICT is a perfect fit.
The South African scarce skills list is divided into 12 broad categories. Each category is related to specific sectors of the South African economy. The ICT industry of South Africa is one of these sectors. Scarce and Critical skills are defined as “an absolute or relative demand: current or in future; for skilled; qualified and experienced people to fill particular roles / professions, occupations
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or specialisations in the labour market.
Critical skills refers to particular capabilities needed within an occupation, for example, general management skills, communication and customer handling skills, teamwork skills, and communication technology skills. What this means is that South Africa’s local workforce lacks the qualifications or skills to meet the demands of our ICT industry. Currently, the South African government have to recruit from abroad to fill the skills gaps.
There is also a distinction between absolute and relative scarcity of skills. Absolute scarcity refers to suitably skilled people who are not available in the labour market and may include new or emerging occupation, lack of suitably qualified people or insufficient numbers of people enrolled in programmes to meet the new demands.
who may not necessarily have a high level of work experience, may not be located within a specific geographical location and equity considerations.
ICT is a key economic sector
ICT is evolving almost on a daily basis, such is the speed of new technology. In a simplified fashion, ICT is anything that will transmit or receive information in a digital form, store and retrieve data via personal computers, email, your digital television or smart phone, using software and satellite systems. ICT isn’t all about computers, but how we use technology.
The logic behind the critical skills list is not quite as simple as ‘we have a skills shortage, we must fill the skills shortage’. The industries and sectors on the list are chosen carefully. They must benefit South Africa in a tangible way and drive our economy forward. ICT meets both these criteria.
Way back in 2013, the South African ICT sector contributed approximately 8.2% to South Africa’s GDP. The total rand value was R468.4 billion. That is more than what agriculture added to the GDP in the same year.
As for the ‘tangible’ factor – with the correct skills in place: • South Africa can continue to be the leader in Africa in this field. • South Africa can continue to attract world leaders in ICT to our shores. IBM, Microsoft and Dell are just three major companies • already running subsidiaries in the country. • South Africa can develop new systems, technologies and software. These could add even more to the GDP.
Specific opportunities within ICT The occupations within each sector on the South African critical skills list are also considered carefully. It is again those that will benefit the South African economy most that comes out tops.
In the ICT sector, the following positions are listed:
• Cisco solution specialist • Cisco engineer • Solutions Architects in Telecommunications and ICT • Integrated developers (PHP, Perl, Java) • Network Analyst • IT Security Specialist • System Integration Specialist • Enterprise Architecture • Data Centre Operations • Network Specialist (security) • Database Specialists • Microsoft System Engineers • Network Controllers • AV Specialists (anti-virus)
ICT jobs are among the critical and scarce skills that South Africa needs to fulfil its development objectives. The 2018 National List of Occupations in High Demand highlights the jobs showing strong employment growth or those experiencing, or about to experience, labour market shortages.
While 335 jobs are deemed to be high demand, a raft of ICT skills are among the approximately 100 ranked as being in highest demand.
These are chief information officer (CIO), ICT project manager, data management manager, application development manager, information systems manager, IT manager, computer quality assurance specialist and ICT communications assistant.
the ICT sphere include ICT systems analyst, software developer, ICT risk specialist, programmer analyst, developer programmer, applications programmer, data quality officer, decision support analyst, computer network technician, geographic information system specialists and technicians, multimedia designer and web designer, web developer, database designer and administrator, computer network and systems engineer, network analyst and ICT security specialist.
Academys like Supreme ICT, do training needs analysis, curriculum design, pre and post assesment. They offer customised short courses, structured industry certification and SAQA accredited courses. They have MICT accreditation on the 3 qualifications listed below and are recognised CompTIA Delivery Partner. The Supreme ICT Academy Online Institute is an on-line development and learning portal. When it comes to meeting any sustainable development goal, digital technologies play a huge role. It is therefore, both appropriate and encouraging that the communities of practice around ICTs for agriculture, education, livelihoods, water and sanitation, etc. are thriving.
So, going forward, there will always be a need for quality ICT studies through reputable institutions.
REALISE THE FULL VALUE OF YOUR TRAINING INVESTMENT
• National Certificate Telecommunication Network Operations NQF 4 • National Certificate Technical Support NQF 4 • National Certificate End User Computing NQF 4 • Optic Fibre Splicing ant testing 16 Credits NQF 5 • CompTIA N+ / A+ / Cloud Essentials/ Security+ • Internships/Learnership Training
