South African IT skills are still in great demand in Europe, the US and elsewhere, if JobNavigator`s International IT JobFaire is anything to go by.
Fifteen local and international recruitment companies, such as Best Internationale, Computer People, Dynamic Management Solutions, Grafton Recruitment and Q Data are exhibiting alongside other service providers at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Sandton today. It is day two of an event aimed at ferreting out what the online recruitment site terms "export-quality IT skills".
The most sought-after South Africans are developers/programmers, database administrators, network and telecoms specialists, and those with e-commerce experience. Companies looking for this talent are mostly based in Scotland, Ireland, England, North America, Australia and the Netherlands.
Gillian Meier, JobNavigator business development manager, expects an attendance of roughly 1 000 visitors, with over 600 having pre-registered on the JobNavigator site. Although there is local presence at the faire, there is considerably more interest from international companies.
"European companies like South African workers... our level of education is very high and they say we are hard workers."
One of the exhibitors, Breytenbach Prinsloo Incorporated, specialises in work permits, visas and immigration work. The firm comprises South African attorneys and English solicitors, working out of London and Rustenburg. The company opened its immigration services division three years ago, and founding partner Hannes Breytenbach says it has been inundated with instructions in that time.
Although the majority of 'emigr'es are skilled members of the Afrikaans community, Breytenbach says there are a number of British nationals - primarily skilled IT or financial services professionals - immigrating to SA.
Industry sentiment is that the long-term plan expressed by most 'emigr'es is to eventually return to SA with valuable international experience, an international passport ensuring freedom of movement, and with any luck, a fatter bank balance.
In the meanwhile, there appears to be very little cross-pollination of skills; not many international professionals are willing to work in SA due to the prevalent social ills, and international companies find that setting up the necessary infrastructure is increasingly expensive. Keeping the skills in the country would require effort both from government and business, says Meier.
She adds that while it was expected that 20- to 30-year-olds would be the target age group, a number of people close to retirement age have also expressed interest.
JobNavigator will host a similar event in September, this time focused on the local job market.
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