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Taking technology for granted

Little is being said about the dire implications the lack of technology skills could have for the future of the world.
By Warwick Ashford, ITWeb London correspondent
Johannesburg, 29 Sept 2006

Technology tends to be taken for granted. We all generally believe that technology can and will deliver solutions for major global problems in future, but as IEEE president Michael Lightner observed during a recent visit to SA, technology does not exist in a vacuum.

Although Lightner was specifically referring to the economic, standards and social factors that need to exist before technology can have a positive impact on our lives, it is also true that without people with the skills to develop and support it, technology is not a given.

Simply put, technology depends on skills. Therefore, the apparent failure of several initiatives aimed at alleviating the skills shortage in SA, should be of great concern to us all.

The skills issue was once again in the spotlight this week with news of another failure relating to reducing the ICT skill shortage.

It seems government`s plan to attract 2 500 ICT professionals into the country has had little or no effect since its inception at the beginning of the year, with recruitment firms reporting that the skills shortage is in fact getting worse.

Better in Oz

Ironically, at a time when SA is in dire need of IT skills, the industry is said to be recycling the same people instead of growing the skills base. It has also emerged that skilled foreigners are finding it extremely difficult to get into the country and secure work permits.

It appears it would not be unreasonable to say the lack of sufficient technological skills could become one of the biggest threats to future human survival.

Warwick Ashford, portals managing editor

This is in stark contrast to the situation in Australia, where the government has announced a programme to expedite visa applications by software developers with skills in high local demand.

The news of the failure of the foreign ICT skills programme comes after a string of similar failures, including the recent failure of the IT sector`s training authority, ISETT SETA, to provide adequate supporting documentation for more than R20 million spent by the National Skills Fund.

In the light of these and other blunders related to skills development, it has also become meaningless for Cabinet ministers to stand up in public and say things like "the government is committed to tackling skills shortages", as uttered by communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri in recent weeks.

Self-reliance is key

Clearly the government`s approach is not working. Perhaps the time has come to look, yet again, to the private sector to succeed where government has failed.

Lightner suggests SA may achieve better results with internships by following the US model in which programmes are purely voluntary collaboration between private business and tertiary training institutions.

The IEEE president said if technology was to be a driving force in SA, it was of vital importance to ensure a dramatic increase in the number of graduates in technology-related fields like engineering.

While Lightner was quite blunt in his assessment that SA was facing a tremendous and critical shortfall of technological skills, the global scenario he was sketching made it clear the problem was by no means only a local one.

Global proportions

A quick run through some statistics on global demographics indicated we may soon have to get real about the fact that this is an emergency of global proportions.

The fact that technology is not self-generating or self-sustaining has important implications for every country around the world, especially when considering that by 2020, as much as 50% of world`s population is expected to be under 18 years old and therefore not yet productive.

Assuming most people retire from productive life before the age of 70, it is possible that only one-third of the population will be supporting the rest. If this turns out to be true, we`ll all have to hope that technological advances in the next 13 years will be able to compensate.

But what if they can`t?

Instead of speculating about what is going to be the next important technological breakthrough, we may soon be desperately trying to figure out how to survive with what we have because technology has failed to evolve fast enough to cope with future global challenges.

No melodrama

This may sound far-fetched considering the currently dizzying pace of technological advancement, but if there are not enough people with the right skills, the demands may well outstrip technology`s capacity to deliver.

Without wanting to be melodramatic, all things considered, it appears it would not be unreasonable to say the lack of sufficient technological skills could become one of the biggest threats to future human survival.

Let`s hope the governments of most other countries around the world are doing a lot more than merely talking about the skills shortage, otherwise we are all going to be in a great deal of trouble.

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