In a discussion of skills dependency and shortage within ICT and telecommunications in South Africa, those focused on education, training and skills development have added 'reliable data' to the list of what is lacking.

Oupa Mopaki, chief executive officer of MICT (Media, Information and Communication Technologies) Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) says there is often mention of a skills crisis or shortage in South Africa, but, in his experience, few are able to specify exactly where the shortages are.

But there is concern.

ICT professionals are concerned not only about the number of people entering the sector, but also about whether or not enough is being done to develop highly qualified ICT professionals.

Alfie Hamid, regional manager for Cisco Corporate Affairs in sub-Saharan Africa, has expressed his concern over the lack of foundation ICT learning to teach the fundamentals of ICT – this, he claims, is critical to improve the "ICT readiness" of school leavers approaching institutions.

Hamid adds that less than 5% of schools nationally offer ICT as a subject and one of the main challenges is the availability of qualified teachers to fulfil learning requirements. He believes the issue is exacerbated by qualified teachers heading to the private sector where they stand a greater chance of receiving a better salary.

"Without that basic IT knowledge, a learner would be lost in their first year of studies. ICT as a subject must get more attention and focus... and this is where the ICT private sector has to come in."

As the body responsible for skills development in various sectors and sub-sectors, including IT and telecommunications, MICT SETA is at the forefront of collaboration between industry and authorities to train and equip learners to enter specific fields.

Mopaki says the authority has prioritised skills development and has, through interaction with its stakeholders, drafted a list of identified scarce and critical skills. This list includes vendor-specific technical skills sets covering Cisco, SAP, Oracle and Microsoft.

"We have, over a number of years, done research and used a research organisation to speak to stakeholders to identify exactly what kind of skills are required. This has been used to develop what is known as the Sector Skills Plan," Mopaki continues.

By March 2014 this Plan indicated a demand for 6,281 potential vacancies in the MICT sector, with the IT sub-sector emphasising the need for qualifications of the necessary level required by the market, and telecommunications focusing on technical programmes and qualifications.

In addressing those critical skills, companies who are in the MICT constituency will communicate with Seta based on letters of intent as far as training employees or unemployed candidates, says Mopaki.

He continues saying that it is important that training is done in line with what has been identified by the market as critical requirements because there is often a disconnect between what is sought after in the market and what is offered in terms of training.

This exacerbates an already growing problem of training learners and introducing them to the market only to have them struggle to find vacancies.

What is available

He adds that many businesses, especially smaller ventures, are committing to train a high number of learners. They also commit to employ a percentage of these candidates.

"But, we ask, 'what will become of the remaining candidates'?" Mopaki adds.

The response to this is often that these candidates are being trained for other companies in the sector.

The issue the SETA has is that these 'other companies' being referred to are stating precisely the same thing, which means that everyone will employ a number of people trained, with the expectation that the remaining percentage of trained individuals will be employed elsewhere.

The reality is that there are fewer vacancies within these key sectors and it is a challenge in the market says Mopaki. He makes reference to Telkom's recent announced intention to restructure and retrench, including technical skills, and that many technology companies are downsizing or scaling back on new placements.

Another issue impacting skills development and management in the market is the availability of sufficient and reliable data of learners with certification and accreditation.

In practice, as Mopaki explains, the SETA will push for the training of a certain amount of candidates towards a specific certification per year. At the same time a large, established vendors will, via their training programmes, do the same. The end result is that not all the information is correlated, which adds to the difficulty.

The MICT Seta is working together with bodies like the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) to build up skills and change the perception that South Africa is unable to churn out the volume and quality of skills required by the market.

"We do have the resources and capability to produce skills, we need to work together and work with resources, and not talk over each other..." Mopaki says.