Telecoms not spared skills shortage

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 09 Dec 2008

Local telecommunications businesses are filling the shortfall of local skills with outsourced employees.

According to MTN SA MD Tim Lowry, the local mobile giant has had to substitute the lack of local skills with international skills from the likes of Ericsson and IBM, especially in the fields of transmission engineering and optical fibre specialists.

Lowry says the company's current concern is the fostering of local skills. “What we want to do now is build up our own resources,” he explains.

The Department of Labour earlier this year released data that showed SA was short 37 565 IT professionals. However, this figure could be even higher by 2009, according to a survey conducted by ITWeb and the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering, which shows SA could be short as many as 70 000.

Vodacom's chief communications officer, Dot Field, says the operator has also identified a skills shortfall. She says one of the company's challenges has been the lack of women in technology roles in the industry.

Teach me

Like many ICT businesses, both Vodacom and MTN have launched programmes to combat the skills shortage. Last week, Lowry introduced MTN's graduate and bursary programmes, aimed at providing graduates and school-leavers the opportunity to experience the industry first hand.

One concern expressed by more than one business in ICT is that skills developed in-house are often poached by competitors. With the large costs associated with up-skilling, companies have been reluctant to invest in training.

However, Lowry explains that the up-skilling of local talent can only add to the pool of available talent, making poaching less necessary to pull skills from others in the industry. “We also have schemes for maintaining some of the skills that we train. If we keep 60% of the people we invest in, that is a good number,” he adds.

The company is identifying the first candidates for its programme, which is set to start in February. Lowry says the company will grow the initiative to incorporate not only the ICT skills, but business skills, marketing and human resources.

Vodacom is also looking at up-skilling, with its graduate programme for females in technology. “It is a three-year sponsorship programme, inspired by the achievements of great women in the business and telecommunications industry,” adds Field.

Pushing up roses

However, other businesses have faced serious challenges when trying to get academies and skills development off the ground. Just last week, the Oracle-backed e-Skills Academy collapsed due to its black empowerment partner pulling the rug from under its feet, and academy employees have been left in the lurch.

The initiative, conceived at the Presidential International Advisory Council on the Information Society and Development, in August last year, shut its doors after less than a year of operation. The academy's predecessor was also short-lived.

In addition, analysts have lambasted the traditional mindset of ICT employers. Gartner research VP and fellow Mark Raskino noted at a conference earlier this year that the IT industry has systematically created the conditions that foster SA's skills crisis, explaining that it has become ageist.

Both Vodacom and MTN have acknowledged the need to change the traditional employment mindset and have set aside methods for retaining and growing the skills base they have.

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