The Information Systems Electronics and Telecommunications Technologies` (ISETT) Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) and Freedom NetCentres have embarked on a joint venture to provide around 4 500 post-matriculants with information and communications technology (ICT) training in the next 24 months.
Freedom International, the fund established to set up Freedom NetCentres in Africa, will also invest a further R2 million to establish two additional NetCentres in Mpumalanga and the North West province within the next three months. Freedom NetCentres are facilities providing affordable Internet and PC access.
"The partnership will help bridge the gap between the technology haves and have-nots and translate academic theory into practical skills for the labour market," says Fidel Jonah, a co-founder of Freedom International.
"Our vision when we established our first Freedom NetCentre in Durban was to provide the cheapest Internet and computer access for Africa`s emerging markets and increasingly entrepreneurial youth," says Jonah.
Freedom International`s focus on entrepreneurial development is in line with ISETT`s objective of imparting entrepreneurial skills to university and technikon graduates to help them to create employment opportunities themselves.
ISETT SETA CEO Mateli Mpuntsha said at the launch of the new project that SA`s greatest need for skills lay in ICT, with a recent Human Sciences Research Council report predicting aggregate growth of over 40% between 1998 and 2003.
"There is also a projection that by the year 2003 there will be 20 000 ICT jobs unfilled. The number of vacancies expected to arise this year alone is more than 600 - 10% of these in top and senior management; 15% among professionals, specialists and middle management; and 35% among skilled technicians and supervisors."
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