CS Holdings and Consilience Technologies have announced their commitment to developing IT skills in South Africa. They have entered into a joint venture to offer proven and tested corporate and career training material in South Africa. The course material will be adapted to local conditions and is provided by world renowned Tata Infotech, the Indian IT skills company which is part of the 140-year old Tata Group - one of the largest corporates on that subcontinent.
As part of the announcement at a presentation held at CS Holdings on 12 June, CS Holdings also guaranteed jobs to ten candidates that meet the selection criteria as lecturers within CS Holdings` IT education division, CS Education Solutions, in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. The candidates that meet these criteria will undergo a three-month intensive train-the-trainer program on e-commerce technologies. Successful candidates will have to sign a two-year contract with CS Education Solutions as part of the agreement and will be paid industry related salaries according to their experience and results. The response to this initiative has been unprecedented - more than 130 candidates attended the presentation.
According to CS Holdings CEO Annette van der Laan, there is a huge global demand for high level IT skills. "We are more concerned about the quality of IT skills in South Africa than the quantity of people being trained for specific vendor profiles. We are seeking qualified professionals or postgraduates who will, after completing the course, be competent enough to apply the knowledge they have acquired in almost any business environment. We are committed to finding work for all our graduates, primarily in `learnership` programs, and numerous institutions have already expressed huge interest in this."
The growing demand and growth of the e-commerce market has provided organisations with an ideal business opportunity to participate in a global village, providing goods and services to a world customer base. This brings with it new entrepreneurial, training and employment opportunities for individuals and organisations. To meet the growing need and demand for competent and skilled IT professionals, Tata Infotech launched its revolutionary G-Tech and E-Tech courses that will now be available in SA through CS Education Solutions.
"We are living through a revolution that is changing the way we live, communicate, think and prosper," adds CS Education Solutions managing director Dr Madelise Grobler. "Choosing a career is not an easy task as there are endless possibilities. Choosing a career in IT can be an even more daunting one. The rapidly changing world of IT requires one to be highly informed about market trends and demands for skills in IT. Although they have their place in the skills matrix, short term crash courses are certainly not the answer for a career in IT. Tata Infotech, with its industry related long-term courses, has the solution to the IT skills gap found in South Africa today."
Consilience is two-thirds owned by the J&J Group (headed by former government minister Jay Naidoo and Nedlac CE Jayendra Naidoo). Tata Infotech, a company in the 140-year old Tata Group, owns the balance.
"We don`t have to wait for others to make decisions for us, the world is not an unsolved puzzle waiting for the occasional genius to fill the voids or unlock its secrets," says CEO of Consilience Dr Hasmukh Gajjar. "We have to encourage our people to embrace becoming part of the IT age and develop skills accordingly. With the change of ages, a need for learning is realised and the IT age has created a huge need for skilled and trained people. Although IT has led to an increase in job losses, it has also created new job opportunities for re-skilled people or knowledge workers. It is clear that CS Holdings is dedicated to training and educating people in South Africa in order to put this country on the map as a world leader in IT skills and solutions delivery."
CS Education Solutions` business development manager and programme coordinator for this project, Dan Ellappa stresses that there will soon be a new generation of intelligent thinkers that possess a diverse range of skills that can be put into practice. "The methodology of the course which is concept based is more effective and prepares the student to deal with real life scenarios in the workplace. The courses are designed by e-commerce professionals working on international projects for Tata Infotech."
"E-commerce and software development will be the main focus of the training. We constantly hear about the IT skills shortage in SA and yet we have hundreds of semi-qualified IT professionals who cannot get jobs. This emphasises the fact that current IT training is not addressing industry needs. IT training needs to be offered by a company that can move quickly as technology changes, one that can change syllabi all the time.
"However, training companies also need to be able to focus on current business needs. We will therefore be working in close cooperation with both business and tertiary institutions to ensure high quality and business application in the delivery of training.
"It is the depth of content of the Tata Infotech courses and the fact that they work across multiple platforms that makes them unique. They are not limited to specific vendor profiles and therefore are exactly what we need to fill the skills gap," concludes Ellappa.
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