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DOC addresses e-skills challenge

Farzana Rasool
By Farzana Rasool, ITWeb IT in Government Editor.
Johannesburg, 15 Aug 2011

The Department of Communications (DOC) last week held a collaborative workshop with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to address the e-skills challenge in SA.

The department says it has set itself a target of being a global leader in the use of ICT tools for socio-economic development.

It is in aid of this that it has collaborated with the UNDP to fast-track ICT skills development in the country.

The workshop aimed to lay the foundation needed to upskill and increase the country's ICT usage.

Issues such as e-skilling the country for equitable prosperity and global competitiveness, and reducing the shortage of e-skills were discussed.

ICT leader

Deputy communications minister Obed Bapela said in the ICT sector, efforts need to be doubled to ensure imbalances are capped.

He highlighted the importance of education in order to have an e-skilled society.

“With the proper foundation from our schooling system, I have no doubt in my mind that we can achieve the desired outcome of producing skilled and economically viable university graduates who are not just job-seekers but rather entrepreneurs and innovators who will ensure we realise the Department of Communications' motto of 'making South Africa a global leader in harnessing ICT for socio-economic development'.”

SA slacking

Bapela said the DOC established a new wave of positive change that recognises SA is now slipping down the global e-readiness indicators, despite past efforts.

“This is not because we have not been doing useful things; it just means that others are working harder than we are and this includes many countries that have less opportunity than we do.”

He added that the capacity and convergence of new forms of ICT, including smartphones, tablets and cloud computing, are snowballing at unprecedented rates and this will continue to escalate, along with reducing costs of acquisition and access.

“The internal dynamics of many nations are now responding to these impacts, and new value propositions about how best to deal with equity of opportunity, social responsibility and sustainability are emerging.

“These are moving past traditional models of diffusion in a financial cost benefit paradigm. The lessons of Google, Skype, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon are very apparent for all who wish to see.”

Mobile adoption

The deputy minister said there are three major issues that need to be considered.

The first is that the traditional cost/benefit analysis approaches are insufficient to determine the impact of the new ICT on business, government, education and civil society.

Secondly, aggregation of supply and demand is important for establishing and maintaining an equitable socio-economic position in the emerging paradigm of Internet connectivity.

The final issue is that in dealing with issues of socio-economic equity, there is little alternative but to embrace the new ICT developments rapidly.

“Nation states with a developmental agenda such as ours, which have a relatively higher adoption of mobile devices, have an unprecedented opportunity to improve their position in this space much quicker than ever before.”

Bapela said that with a relatively small population, SA cannot afford a disaggregated approach to ICT development, while all the other members of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and China) have a distinct tendency for centralised economic approaches.

“So, if South Africa wants to be a serious part of the socio-economic fabric of the world going into the future, we have no real alternative but to seriously engage with the information society and the knowledge-based economies.”

Department plan

SA has a collective approach that involves a number of state-owned enterprises. This will allow it to leapfrog up the ladder, according to Bapela.

“Secondly, we have a surprising amount of dedicated skills and commitment in the right places in our society (in business, government, education and civil society), and currently an amazing interest in providing useful support from international business (Cisco, RIM, Samsung, Google, Apple), education (India, South Korea, Cuba, the Eidos University Network in Australia, Mexico), and donor countries including Finland, Sweden and South Korea to make a difference.”

SA is also well positioned in terms of the technology leaps that are taking place. The convergence of increasing ICT capacity into mobile devices really suits places like SA, said Bapela.

“Fourthly, we have a plan. The Medium-Term Strategic Framework 2009-2014 of the country is a guiding light that can help all of our efforts focus on the very real problems we face.”

Lastly, the deputy minister said SA has political and leadership will, and a lot of goodwill and interest from the global ICT players and development partners who recognise that SA offers a place to develop new approaches to engage with half of the world's population.

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