South Africa, as an emerging economy, lacks 37 565 ICT workers, ranging from network technicians to human resource workers.
This was revealed at an ICT youth workshop, hosted by the Department of Communications (DOC) in partnership with the University of Johannesburg (UJ), at the latter's Soweto campus.
The workshop was organised to educate the youth on the importance of ICT and how it can address skills shortages and unemployment in the country.
The government noted that there is a strong demand for ICT skills, especially among the youth. During the workshop, youths were taught the role ICT plays in reducing poverty and unemployment. They were also shown how they can take advantage of opportunities introduced by social media in terms of branding their own products and businesses.
Dr Thami Mazwai, director of UJ's Centre for Small Business Development (CSBD), addressed the youth on the importance of starting their own businesses and not relying on government for job creation. He said government creates a sphere for economic development that individuals can also tap into in terms of starting their own businesses, thereby helping government fight the high level of unemployment.
Mazwai stated that most graduates rely heavily on government to provide jobs for them, while there are other avenues like the UJ CSBD, which offers funds and development for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). He encouraged the youth to leverage such institutions and research the incentive programmes that are available.
The DOC wants to encourage SMEs to produce content on SA's culture and heritage for local viewing, as the country moves from analogue to digital television. The youth were also encouraged to get involved in the manufacturing of set-top boxes and other ICT infrastructure like government's broadband project. However, this can only be possible if the youth complete ICT graduate skills training programmes offered by different IT companies.
According to Parthy Chetty, Intel SA's head of corporate affairs, the skills gap reduces the employability of university graduates by IT companies. He maintains that technical colleges have stronger practical skills compared to universities, whose focus is mainly theoretically and lack technical skills training.
However, Chetty encouraged students to consider doing volunteer work in order to build up experience in their chosen fields of studies, as most companies will seek to employ students who have experience.
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