With total local demand for IT professionals expected to grow from approximately 29 000 in 1998 to more than 41 000 by 2003, indications are South Africa`s corporate training market can look forward to explosive growth.
These figures, supplied by Elsje Hall, Chief Researcher, Labour Market Analysis, at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), reinforce those published by global IT research house, International Data Corporation (IDC), which predicts the corporate eLearning market will surpass R44 billion by 2002.
The IT workforce shortage is a key factor in the increased need for corporate training. According to IDC, there is a current shortage of more than one million IT workers worldwide. "The number of openings in Europe for IT workers is projected to exceed one million in 2002. In the United States, almost 850 000 in 2002," says Steve Dunbar, Lotus Development SA marketing manager.
"Locally, the total demand for IT professionals by the year 2003 is expected to reach in excess of 41 000. Approximately 15 000 of these will be newly appointed staff. More than 85% of these staff will fill newly created positions, while the rest will be replacing people who will leave the profession (due to retirement or other factors)" says Hall, quoting figures from the HSRC`s latest publication, SA labour market trends and future workforce needs: 1998-2003, by Andrew Whiteford et al.
Taking a closer look at the corporate eLearning market, IDC expects the market for delivery technologies will be less significant over time.
"However, with this in mind Lotus Development believes customers will shift toward increased spending on content, course development, administration, maintenance, and hosted services in order to attain and maintain their competitive edge," he says.
However, without organisational-supported learning, sustainable, long-term competitive advantage can easily be squandered. To overcome this, companies will need their employees to learn new skills and acquire new knowledge quickly and continuously.
"While staff may be motivated to learn for personal and professional development, the logistics of attending classroom education are increasingly difficult to manage," says Dunbar.
"In response to this, corporations, higher education institutions and training organisations are looking to adopt distance learning applications now widely available thanks to the huge growth in the installed base of low-cost networked and inter-networked computers," he concludes.
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