The Department of Communications (DOC) has initiated an ICT programme it says will help deal with local skills shortages.
The National e-Skills Dialogue Initiative (NeSDI) will be implemented by the Meraka e-Skills Institute in an effort to increase the number of ICT graduates. The NeSDI will become a faculty of the institute that will collaborate with business to align ICT skills training with market expectations.
DOC acting director-general Greda Grabe said the initiative would aim to lead e-skills development in the country. Speaking at the announcement of the initiative, Grabe said it would “directly impact on the quality of teaching at the institute, as well as the workplace readiness of students."
According to the DOC, the NeSDI will collaborate with a range of sectors, from government, business, social partners and academia in multi-stakeholder dialogue which it hopes will lead to action.
The DOC states that the NeSDI would help it fulfil its mandate to operationalise the institute, saying: “The NeSDI is a first step in realising the objective of a fully operational Meraka e-Skills Institute by 2010.”
Established in 2004, the Meraka e-Skills Institute aims to develop e-skills and contribute to the growth of ICT sectors by addressing e-skills shortages and disjunctures between the public and private sectors.
Lead role
The DOC states that the initiative follows from a report on the ICT skills shortage submitted in September 2008. Drawn up by the e-Skills Council, the report recommended the “urgent” development and implementation of a national programme “to achieve large scale improvement in the supply of those ICT skills for which there is a need in industry”.
The programme will focus on e-skills such as ICT practitioner skills, ICT user skills, e-business skills and e-literacy, with a special focus on the social appropriation of ICTs. It would also include programmes on development skills certification, matching workers with jobs, support for career learning and skills frameworks and definitions.
The DOC states that eventually the institute would provide “diversified, unique e-skills education and training programmes which would play a leading role”.
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