The Department of Communications (DOC) will host an e-Skills Summit next week to address the lack of IT skills in SA.
The department says the aim is to develop an inclusive and comprehensive approach to attend to the lack of ICT skills in SA's economy.
“ICT is a potentially transformative developmental tool, provided it is well-located within the overall policy framework and is not seen as an end in itself, but a necessary means,” said communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda in his budget vote speech earlier this year.
The summit will act as a focal point to establish a commonly owned vision of how to provide SA with the necessary skills to thrive as a member of the global information society, according to the summit Web site.
The summit will be held from 26 to 28 July, in Cape Town, and will be done through the Meraka e-Skills Institute, according to the DOC.
At the summit
The e-Skills Summit programme will focus on three key pillars identified as priorities for the e-Skills Institute, according to the site.
The first focus is the definition of e-skills, including conceptual clarifications. This is followed by e-skills development research and evaluation, and South African Medium-Term Strategic Framework implementation for e-skills development.
The programme consists of plenary panel sessions featuring senior representatives from government, education, business and civil society/labour. There will also be sessions on scientific papers, case studies, technology snippets and workshop sessions. This will be complemented by facilitated working groups, which will contribute to the initial draft National e-Skills Plan of Action.
Some of the plenary speakers include deputy communications minister Dina Pule, DOC director-general Mamodupi Mohlala, acting CEO of the e-Skills Institute Dr Harold Wesso, and Boni Gantile, executive of learning and development, at Telkom SA's Centre for Learning.
Evaluating skills
“Broad-based skills are vital in dealing with poverty reduction, sustainable livelihoods, intensifying the fight against crime, building cohesive communities, international cooperation, and in building a developmental state,” says the DOC.
Pule says of the inaugural e-Skills Summit: “As a country we cannot continue to miss out on the benefits at a local level of ensuring people have the necessary training to leverage technologies that enable communication, transactions and SMME development, particularly in poor rural and urban communities.”
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