Outsourcing ICT skills abroad is still a major problem for SA, and continuing to do so hurts the economy and reduces competitiveness.
So says Malcolm Rabson, MD of Dariel, who notes every industry needs some form of ICT and SA should be in a position to provide this service locally.
"Technology has become the electricity of the world and really the backbone of the country, so we need to be nurturing the young and dynamic talent we are producing in country. In the long run, this will see us outsourcing less and allow us to be competitive globally in the technology space," says Rabson.
SA has continued to drop in ranking on the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) biennial global competitiveness report to 56th in 2014 from 53rd in 2013.
Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF, believes Africa could use technology in education to leapfrog developed economies, but warns this requires a special focus on education, and particularly on teachers.
Shaping the future
The topic of youth skills was also highlighted at WEF Africa, which took place in Cape Town last week. President Jacob Zuma highlighted that industries need to embrace the youth so they can start playing their role in shaping the future of the continent, given they are the future.
"Our ICT challenges seem to be worsening instead of improving. We have a clear indication of the challenges but little is being done to improve the current situation we find ourselves in. All the players need to come to the party but there's no denying government has to play the biggest role here," Rabson points out.
He believes there is a lack of enthusiasm from school level towards IT-related subjects, saying teachers are not making these subjects appealing to students.
Additionally, there is a lack of qualified technical educators in our school system - this is filtering down to the students as they are not being exposed to the full knowledge which is stifling their learning process and making it difficult for students to exceed in these subjects, he explains.
"We have also noticed that university graduates entries are very low for IT-related courses, which clearly shows a skills shortage being produced in SA that will inevitably affect the growth of the industry and the economy."
Jobless graduates
There are a number of ICT graduates who are jobless and Rabson attributes this to the quality of the education they received.
He points out their technology education has been flawed, with some fundamental "building blocks" not being taught, thus they don't have a full complement of the generic skills needed to build a system.
"In our industry, there are a lot of developers out there, but very few competent ones that meet industry requirements. Unfortunately, in such a strained economy, driven by tightened budgets and operational efficiency, businesses are looking for immediate skills to plug the gaps."
Carl Raath, technical director at ICT training solutions provider, Torque IT, says although the local tertiary institutions are doing a "splendid job" of providing students with a theoretical base, they come short on imparting the practical ICT skills - a critical prerequisite for the job market.
Rabson suggests graduate programmes as a solution. "This enables the graduates to get their first test of the industry and, of course, their progress can be monitored by their assigned manager. This also allows them to get their foot in the door that should permanent work opportunities arise they're in a great position to be considered.
"Sometimes it's not that industry doesn't want to provide employment, but the business needs to be growing to enable it to expand its staff complement."
He believes both government and the private sector can do more to address the ICT skills shortage the country is facing.
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