The University of the Witwatersrand's Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) and the Institute of Information Technology (IT) Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) have launched the 2022 JCSE-IITPSA Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Skills Survey.

ICT professionals, practitioners and companies are invited to participate in the survey, available on the IITPSA and JCSE websites, before July 31.

The survey is aimed at determining what the trends in South Africa's ICT skills environment are and what the impact of the increasingly borderless world of work may have on the opportunities available to people and companies and the attendant risks.

The launch of the latest survey, the twelfth in the series since 2008, was presented by JCSE director Professor Barry Dwolatzky, JCSE applied research manager and IITPSA production consultant Adrian Schofield and software company BBD CIO and research and development head Tony van der Linde at an event on July 21.

Dwolatzky highlighted the importance of getting robust data on ICT skills and trends in South Africa and called for people to provide input for the survey, noting that there remains a persistent gap in terms of ICT skills worldwide, that economies are expected to increasingly use of digital technologies and that work-from-anywhere trends change the risks and responsibilities of professionals.

"There are benefits and disadvantages to working from anywhere. Some of the benefits companies are seeing include more efficiency, as a borderless environment reduces overheads and costs. Another advantage is less travel and more time for employees," he said.

A second benefit of a borderless work environment is that it opens up new markets for companies to address and, with a remote workforce across the world, they have the potential to be closer to customers.

"A big advantage is that remote work is also more sustainable, as it cuts travel and enterprises' carbon footprints. Further, there are societal benefits, as people tend to stay within communities and can work from where they feel most comfortable socially, helping to create more social cohesion," said Dwolatzky.

The disadvantages of a borderless world of work include that people still find it difficult to maintain human contact, as remote and hybrid meetings can lead to people feeling left out or unengaged compared with meeting in person, he said.

While the focus on ensuring that tasks and subtasks are completed helps to overcome some of the management challenges of remote work environments, less interpersonal socialisation can contribute to mental health challenges and strain relations in the workplace, he added.

However, there have always been a proportion of people working in the ICT arena who prefer flexibility to work how and where they wish. They used to be called contractors and provided their services through brokers, and many could potentially sell their services to a much wider market than the one they can travel to from their home base, said Schofield.

Additionally, certain sectors of economies have always been doing so-called gig work, which involves specific tasks, and are used to charging for their time and the value of services.

"The question is whether this type of selling of services as a developer or programmer is happening currently. I do not believe we have seen whether this will become a feature of the industry yet," he added.

Further, a key concern is that most companies place great value on professional experience in determining how much a person can contribute to an enterprise. These skills and competencies are built on a foundation of knowledge applied in practice, which is one of the reasons there are concerns around controlling quality of work and its value within a remote work environment, Schofield explained.

"It is often peers and supervisors who assist us in ironing out mistakes that are an inevitable part of gaining experience. Such an environment enables a workplace to mitigate risks that go with learning from mistakes, but there are questions, despite myriad cooperation tools, of whether this can happen when people work in isolation," he said.

In the JCSE-IITPSA ICT Skills Survey over many years, the researchers have seen that people gain skills on the job, concurred Dwolatzky.

"Most employers invest in growing the skills of their workforces and, if we do move to a gig economy, it may be that those who have skills will get jobs while those who do not have them will not be competitive and not get an opportunity in a workplace to develop skills," he said.

Additionally, within a gig economy, each person must take ownership of his or her own continuous learning. Without a company, people must invest in their own education and future. Learning new skills and continuously learning and acquiring skills will make a person competitive in an increasingly competitive environment, Dwolatzky said.

Meanwhile, given the global skills shortage, the JCSE-IITPSA ICT Skills Survey can also help to identify risks to the South African economy from the skills gap, but also identify risks posed by other economies looking to boost the percentage of ICT workers, said Schofield.

"For example, Australia has a target of having about 1.2-million ICT practitioners by 2027. What will this mean for South Africa's ICT workforce if Australia is looking to add a further 300 000 ICT practitioners to its economy?" he asked.

Similarly, if South African companies increasingly rely on international skills from other countries, the country must overcome the challenge of investing in skills and providing opportunities to grow experience to ensure the economy is sustainable, he said.

The JCSE-IITPSA ICT Skills Survey report will be completed in September and published in October. Researchers will analyse the responses and look at trends and changes identified over twelve editions, said Schofield.