Last year JSE-listed CCH ran its inaugural Class of 2000 training programme; it was so successful in creating grassroots value for the group that CCH has been prompted to quadruple its intake to 60 students for 2001. The overall investment made by the group in new talent on this year`s programme is R500 000.
CCH`s Class of 2000 internee programme took in computer science graduates from various South African universities in January. Thirteen of the internees were previously disadvantaged students, mainly from universities in the former homelands.
The internee programme balanced soft skills content against technical training in Java, Visual Basic and Oracle programming to ensure graduates received an all-round business-oriented grounding.
All internees graduated from the three-month course. 15 were immediately absorbed into CCH Software Development, where they were productive and contributed to the results of the business virtually from day one. They continue to be groomed into a variety of roles, including project management, pre-sales and development.
"The primary inhibitor to growth in the IT industry today is our ability to attract sufficient numbers of talented and skilled staff," says Derek Hughes, MD of CCH Software Development. "We were easily able to absorb all 15 graduates from the internee programme as we have an open-ended list of vacancies for the right candidates, which is typical of a fast-growing software company where the skills requirement is growing faster than the employment market can supply. This is particularly true in the new-generation programming areas where we supply many of our skills and fulfil projects."
These areas include e-business and mobile commerce where CCH has become a market leader, supplying its clients with packaged solutions, bespoke systems and overseeing complex projects to completion.
Howard Starkey, HR director at CCH, maintains that an internee programme is essential. It provides a source of young talent and contributes to the overall growth of the IT skills base in South Africa; as such it ensures CCH feeds back into the system that sustains it, the correct and responsible thing to do.
"In our case it fulfils the additional role of helping us meet our Employment Equity requirements," adds Starkey.
Starkey strongly advises other players in the IT industry to follow CCH`s example of preferring training over head-hunting as a way of meeting skilled staffing needs, an inflationary practice that is not sustainable in the long term.
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