The South African Information and Communication Technology Association (SAICTA) has introduced a new jobs portal aimed at connecting ICT professionals and graduates with employers.
Called Industry Connect, the portal is intended to go beyond traditional online job boards by linking employers, jobseekers and professional development in a single platform.
The portal is specifically targeted at ICT jobseekers and ICT professionals, including graduates and people with existing ICT skills, while also serving employers looking to recruit ICT talent.
SAICTA CEO Dr Jannie Zaaiman says the initiative addresses one of the practical barriers to job creation: the disconnect between people with ICT skills and businesses that need them.
The launch comes as government and business enter phase three of their partnership to create a million jobs by 2030.
The portal covers opportunities across established and emerging ICT disciplines, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, data, cyber security, cloud technologies and software development, as well as AI ethics, quantum computing, robotic process automation, extended reality and computer vision.
The initiative comes as SA continues to grapple with an ICT skills shortage, particularly in fast-growing areas such as AI, cyber security, cloud computing and data.
“The challenge is not only acquiring technical skills. As technology changes, professionals also need strong problem-solving, critical-thinking, adaptability and communication skills. The skills challenge should be tackled from both a technical point of view as well as a professionalism one,” Zaaiman states.
The portal was developed by local technology and software development firm, Botlhale Village in partnership with Belgium Campus iTversity, with assistance from four senior Belgium Campus students.
According to Zaaiman, the platform’s front-end uses Angular web application, while open-source back-end platform Supabase is used for the database. It is hosted in Xneelo cloud and uses Microsoft single sign-on.
How it works
Industry Connect allows employers to register and post ICT vacancies, while jobseekers can access opportunities and create profiles showcasing their qualifications, skills and professional-development activities.
Employers can then access ICT talent relevant to their recruitment requirements, creating a direct channel between companies and potential candidates.
“The aim is therefore not simply to put more qualified people into the labour market, but to improve the connection between what people are trained to do and what businesses need them to do,” Zaaiman adds.
“Our objective is therefore not simply to increase the number of qualified jobseekers. It is to improve the alignment between the skills being developed and the skills the economy can actually absorb.”
The association also offers 151 professional-development courses combining technical and soft skills. These will be updated through industry feedback and benchmarking as technology and employer requirements change.
For Zaaiman, the broader objective is to use ICT as an enabler of economic growth across sectors including energy, transport and logistics, mining, tourism, infrastructure and agriculture.
“ICT is cross-cutting across all these industries as it has the potential to not only add efficiencies to company operations, thereby improving productivity and profit to enable further growth, but can also enable increased competition.”
The association says personal information is processed in line with SA’s data-protection legislation, including POPIA. The platform uses authentication and access controls, while Cloudflare infrastructure provides protection against attacks and supports scalability.
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