The ICT sector will have a R3.6 billion pool with which to develop skills in the sector from May when the amended empowerment codes come into effect, but - based on historical indicators - this cash will go to waste.
Under the new broad-based black economic empowerment (or generic) codes, skills development is a priority area. Companies that turnover more than R50 million a year must achieve at least 40% of the points available under this category, or fall an empowerment level.
In addition, the amount of payroll to be spent doubles from May, from 3% to 6%. This, says Media, Information and Communication Technologies (MICT) Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) CEO Oupa Mopaki, means the industry will have a pool of R3.6 billion to tackle skills shortages.
Underspent
Mopaki says this pool will be available between May and the end of March next year. Yet, he notes, the R1.8 billion that was meant to go into skills development in the current year "did not happen". The SETA is unable to say just how much money went into training last year, noting the annual reports will only be finalised in April.
Moira de Roche, MD of e-learning company Aligned4Learning, says the money companies should be putting away on skills development is "wasted" because it is not going into the right areas. "It just needs to be spent better."
De Roche adds the shortage of skills within the ICT sector is not at entry level, but rather at the middle level, and companies should be encouraged to develop their staff into these skill levels. She notes the SETA is not being seen as doing a great job in reducing the shortage.
Skills need
According to the SETA's career guide, the technology sector is short at least 1 030 security specialists, 975 software developers, 883 systems analysts, and many other IT skills, which combined point to almost 7 000 vacancies in the sector this year alone.
The projected gap widens to more than 8 000 anticipated vacancies next year, with the biggest shortfall being in network and systems engineers, followed by software developers and then systems analysts.
In addition, government has a scarcity of skills in areas such as business analysts, app developers, SAP consultants and open source developers.
The telecommunications sector seems to be faring better, as it has just 970 empty slots this year, with the most significant need being for computer network technicians. By 2016, this number leaps to 1 460, with a greater need for computer network technicians, developer programmers and CIOs topping the needs list.
ICT expert Adrian Schofield notes that just because the codes encourage employers to invest in skills development does not mean they will do so. He notes companies have never invested as much as they should have on training, and much money has been "misdirected", mostly because of a lack of information about which skills companies should be focusing on.
"The money is not going to where it is needed; there are no processes to make that happen. I don't see any links to training, and if that's not what this is about, then it's going pear-shaped."