Contrary to popular belief, South Africa has a strong software engineering skills pipeline comprising growing numbers of diverse, multi-skilled and enthusiastic young people.
This is according to Tomislav Ravic, Head of People at Entelect, who says: "Many businesses report that they are struggling to find tech talent because the demand far outstrips supply. However, in our experience, South Africa has a wealth of talent. There's been quite a material shift over the last few years in terms of the supply of software talent in the country, particularly because a lot of young South Africans have caught on to software engineering as a viable career choice."
He notes that OfferZen research in 2021 found the number of computer science graduates in South Africa had almost tripled since 2000. Tertiary education, along with initiatives like WeThinkCode, CollectiveX and the increased investment from government into ICT skills, means the growth of the talent pool is swiftly accelerating.
Entelect, which engages with universities and students to grow the skills pool, believes South Africa to be producing world-class young software engineers.
Excellence in education
Ravic believes the right foundations are laid in South Africa's tertiary institutions: "The fundamentals in South African universities are done really well. Tech tooling changes rather quickly, and a university may be teaching older versions of the tools, but they are instilling the fundamentals of software engineering well. I've been involved in hiring graduates for many years now, and we find what we're looking for by examining the fundamentals, understanding the way that tech people think and how they are able to solve problems. The universities can teach them to think in a particular way and apply themselves to those fundamentals brilliantly.
"The universities are producing incredibly talented young ICT professionals, and we see them as an excellent talent hub. We hire a significant number of graduates each year. In fact, this year we hired 74 in January and then another 23 in April. So we're consistently hiring graduates and investing in them, and they remain with us for a really long time," he says.
World-class skills
In addition to having solid education behind them, Ravic says South Africa's young tech talent pool has other attributes making local software engineers increasingly in demand among foreign firms. "They're versatile, thick-skinned, resilient and show initiative. The breadth of exposure and experience that our graduates, software engineers, UX engineers or business analysts get builds their range of skills very quickly," Ravic says.
He believes South Africa has better talent than many other regions across the globe thanks to the country's leadership in areas such as banking technology. "We are working across multiple continents in top tier enterprises such as banks and insurance companies, running excellent, innovative systems built by South Africans," he says.
He adds that it is encouraging to see increasing diversity among graduates and younger ICT professionals. "Nowadays it is far more representative and that's a good sign that people see this as a viable career choice, and it's accessible," he says.
Approaching tech recruitment differently
Organisations battling to source these high-end skills may be approaching the challenge in the wrong way, he says.
"Your typical HR department may not know what skills they're looking for or hiring for. They may not speak the same language as the people that they're trying to hire," he says.
Entelect, taking the unique approach of staffing its HR department with technical professionals, has a highly successful recruitment and HR programme that has seen it winning multiple awards and hiring and retaining over 1 600 technology professionals.
"Something that we do quite well in our organisation is that everyone from our recruitment team – from the interviewers through to the HR team – were technical people. We are a tech company run by technical people. For example, I've got 15 years of experience building systems. As Head of People, I sit in interviews and I'm able to relate and I can speak to the specifics of that person's project. I'm not ticking boxes. I can have a conversation with this person based on real relevant experience, whereas in many organisations there's a disconnect between what the IT teams are doing and what they're expecting from a hiring perspective, and then the HR team whose job it is to go and source these people, nurture the talent, bring them through the door and retain them," Ravic says.
"We place a large emphasis on ensuring that we're hiring the best talent and looking after that talent because, well, that is effectively what our business is about. Investing in, attracting and hiring that particular talent, and then putting together teams of talent that will help other organisations to achieve their goals where they have talent shortfalls.
"Our business model is to enter into long-term partnerships with our customers and aligning their success with ours. We achieve this by providing skilled consultants across all competencies required to deliver large enterprise projects,” Ravic concludes.
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