Skills shortages will be the single biggest challenge facing the South African information and communication technology (ICT) sector over the next ten years, the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) says.
While South Africa’s highly innovative and entrepreneurial ICT sector is on par with global counterparts, the ICT brain drain and slow ICT skills development are threatening the country’s Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) progress.
The sector presents opportunities for significant job creation and export opportunities in the decade ahead, with the opportunities for South Africa’s ICT sector outweighing most of its challenges, says IITPSA nonexecutive director and Western Cape chapter chairperson Pearl Pasi.
The emerging 4IR sector brings a range of new business and career opportunities, with new careers that did not exist in the last decade being created.
However, this means that, to maintain jobs, employees need to be reskilled to keep pace with technological developments.
There is a need to nurture talent and keep it in the country, she says, noting that ICT professionals are leaving South Africa, mostly owing to crime.
“There is little the sector can do to change that, but organisations do need to be conscious of employees’ needs to develop their skills and not get left behind; and they need to reward them appropriately,” Pasi continues.
Amid this, it is believed that not enough attention is being paid to ethics and soft skills.
IITPSA director and International Federation for Information Processing International Professional Practice Partnership chairperson Moira de Roche explains that certain attributes and soft skills that are crucial for the 4IR tend to be overlooked in ICT skills development discussions.
“We need to look beyond technical skills development – we also need to look at skills that will differentiate people from robots.”
Teaching these creativity, innovation, ethics and professionalism skills will be more challenging than teaching technical skills and need to be embedded in every educational subject and adopted throughout the culture of every organisation and the country as a whole.
“These skills are crucial in allowing us to use our fantastic innovation capabilities to harness the power of the technology we have in an appropriate and ethical way,” she says.
It is expected that the emergence of the 4IR could create up to 160-million new jobs.
4IR technologies are bringing a wealth of opportunities for job creation and business growth in South Africa, adds IITPSA VP and nonexecutive director Admire Gwanzura.
“We are already seeing the cloud creating jobs here, and innovators finding opportunities in areas like artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain.
“With the proper regulatory environment and training in place, the 2020s could bring significant opportunities for the ICT sector,” he concludes.