The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) hopes to add IT training to its skills development programme for the unemployed, but this may not work very well, according to an analyst.
UIF commissioner Boas Seruwe says IT and ICT companies need to come forward and participate in this initiative.
“We need people and companies to say they are ready to employ these people once they are trained. We can't train them and then they have no jobs. So we need companies in the IT and ICT sector to come forward so we can start IT training.”
He explains that the programme is a pilot aimed at people who collect UIF. They have the chance to be trained in a trade and then get experiential training with a company or institution that gives them permanent employment once the training is over.
Wider support
The programme currently has no training in IT or ICT fields, except for training as call centre agents, according to project manager Maria Tshabalala.
Seruwe says 150 people have been trained at call centres so far. He feels the next step is IT training.
“I have been speaking to people about graphic design and would like to help people with A+ and other sub-certification in IT. Those are skills that I believe are rare and they are expensive so it's hard for people to do it on their own,” says Seruwe.
World Wide Worx Strategy MD Steven Ambrose feels the value of IT training in this manner is limited. He says it will be a huge challenge for people who have never had any experience with computers or IT and are not computer literate.
“According to our research, with the learning curve it takes a person five years from when they first go online to be completely comfortable with the Web.”
He says that only very limited training can be done in the space of time that the programme usually allows for, which is 18-20 months, according to Seruwe.
“People are going to be very narrowly focused in their training so they might be able to do what they have been trained to do, but they will have no context. It can potentially work, but in a very narrow sense. People will be able to perform functions, but not outside what they have been taught,” adds Ambrose.
Low response
He also says it is unlikely IT companies will come forward and offer permanent employment for trainees from this programme.
“If it's as part of their normal recruitment then no, but if it's part of their upliftment initiatives then maybe. If a company is competing in the market against qualified, experienced people then they're not likely to take on people with little or no background,” he explains.
He adds that, historically, the IT industry has been very bad in these kinds of initiatives.
Training the unemployed
Labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana said in his budget speech that this programme has been adopted by the department as one of the short-term measures to lessen the impact of the global economic crisis.
Seruwe says: “Programmes like this help the country because people are being upskilled. So a previous domestic worker can now become a call centre agent, for example.”
He explains that the trainees are given R2 100 per month, for 20 months, while they are training and R200 million has been put aside for the programme for this financial year. “For six months they don't work and just get trained. The next 14 months are spent in experiential training and they still get paid. Permanent employment is given by the same employer once the training is done.”
Mdladlana said the learners are enrolled in different Accelerated Artisan Training Programmes registered with the MERSETA, Energy SETA and the Construction SETA.
The Gauteng Department of Local Government and Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development and some companies are providing work experience opportunities to the learners and have guaranteed them full employment on completion, he added.
“People are trained in several trades. We have trained people to be plumbers, electricians, welders, drivers and call centre agents,” says Tshabalala.
Seruwe says 774 people have been trained so far.
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