The twin problems of unemployment and an ongoing skills crisis continue to dog the economy and all agree the solution has to lie in effective skills training aimed at matching unemployed people with the appropriate skills to the opportunities created in areas where the skills are needed.
It should be simple, but in reality it's not, and the debacle at the gates of the University of Johannesburg last month is a testament to that. The truth is that young people, for various reasons, are not being channelled into the right direction. They seem to feel that a university education is the only route to follow, and the universities, even if they do provide the appropriate training, simply do not have the capacity to absorb all of those who want to go to them.
Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande's response has been to punt the Further Education and Training (FET) colleges as a preferred training route. That's great in theory because the vocational qualifications those institutions offer are certainly more likely to end up in employment than the general degrees the universities offer. But the reality is that the state FET colleges are failing institutions with poor pass rates and outdated curricula.
The minister has slammed shorter courses offered by private training providers as being of no value in preparing people for the world of work. While there certainly are unscrupulous institutions that take people's money and put them through short programmes that are practically worthless, it's also not right to paint everyone with the same brush and to propose that the three-year courses at FET colleges are the only alternative.
The view of Gerhard de Beer, financial director of Torque IT, a registered private FET and provider of a variety of IT courses, includes the one-year Diploma in IT. ”We have found that people are prepared to pay for the education of their children, and quality education does not come cheap,” he says.
“Unfortunately, as a result of the minister's new approach, the funding we used to receive from the IT Seta (Sector Education and Training Authority) in the past has dried up and parents must make a greater sacrifice. The sad thing for us is that there seems to be no recognition of skills imparted by organisations such as ours. And IT skills are critical to every part of the economy.”
The advantages of training provided by institutions like Torque IT are that it is all vendor-approved. That means students are trained on the latest releases for all major enterprise software systems, with the official manual, on appropriate equipment, and they write the internationally approved and recognised exams.
“To get that accreditation is not easy or cheap and, at this stage, the FET colleges do not follow this route,“ says Carlie Albert, general manager: Training Solutions at Torque. Torque's diploma involves theoretical and practical training as well as the softer, work-readiness skills. The classes are small and have a good record of placement of students into employment. The pass rate annually is more than 95%.
The training is aligned to what employers require from new entrants. Lack of relevancy is often the reason many IT graduates are unemployable, despite the ongoing shortage of skills in the sector, says Alberts. The training is characterised by a low dropout rate and Alberts ascribes this to the system of cases managers who help with problems, on a one-on-one basis. “There is the backup of learning, too, and students are allowed to rewrite the exams twice - that's why our pass rate is so high.”
The IT diploma includes the writing of five international exams and is a good entry-level qualification for the profession. “It is aimed at having successful graduates come out with a sense of doing what's needed in the organisations requiring their skills. The number of qualified people in SA is stagnating. De Beer says: “There are skills leaving the country at a rapid rate so we need to bring in new blood. The demand for skills is there, the number of organisations that are importing IT skills from abroad attests to that.”
It's all about embarking on the correct training route.
Torque IT can be contacted at 0861 Torque (867783) or by visiting www.torque-it.com.
Source: The Star, Workplace, Wednesday, 15 February 2012, Page 3
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