Information and communications technology (ICT) skills in South Africa continue to be scarce both in the retail and distribution arena as well as at the corporate level, which faces what research organisation Gartner calls a global “talent crisis” of immense proportions.
“In retail and distribution, with a specific focus on consumers, there are simply not enough skilled people with the technical savvy to understand the differences in the latest technology that companies like ASUS provides,” says Werner Joubert, Product Country Head (ACZA). “The challenge is that while the average consumer doesn’t have the knowledge to understand these technologies, unfortunately most sales staff aren’t necessarily sufficiently educated either. We obviously don’t want consumers to purchase products they don’t need, or the wrong product for the wrong job.”
But it is at corporate level where there is a real skills crisis at almost every ICT level, which has a dire effect on South African businesses.
“According to the 2016 JCSE ICT Skills Survey — released in July — back in 2010, 45 percent of respondents reported the skills shortage was negatively impacting their businesses,” said Joubert. “In the following four years, the figure remained steady at around 60 to 66 percent. But in 2016, the gap jumped again with 71 percent of businesses stating at least a major effect, while as much as 29 percent say it is a threat to their viability.”
SA as a destination of choice
Joubert added that in 2015, industry insiders were reporting that South Africa needed between 30 000 and 70 000 skilled IT workers.
“This year, the ICT Skills Survey found this shortage so considerable that the percentage of corporates recruiting overseas has more than doubled, from only 12 percent in 2014 to 26 percent this year.”
Interestingly, the survey found that of the few respondents who did specify their sources preferred African countries, while previous source countries had been India or those situated in Eastern Europe.
“According to the JCSE, South Africa remains a destination of choice for ICT practitioners, as exemplified by what it says is a steady stream of applications for ‘critical skills visas’,” he added. “But looking inside South Africa, it is disturbing that the survey argues we cannot afford to continue relying on an education system that isn’t creating a new generation of young people who are not only knowledgeable about technology and its application in daily life, but who are also interested in developing and implementing ICTs and who are work-ready once they leave the education system.”
Routes to career success
How, then, to move into or further your career in the ICT arena? The Media, Information, and Communications Technologies (MICT) Sector Education and Training authority’s Skills List 2015/2016 points to a great many avenues into IT; from bachelor degrees to diplomas, national certificates, learnerships, and apprenticeships to international certifications from the likes of Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, and CompTIA.
The JCSE survey found that pre‑hiring qualifications and certifications this year has changed significantly from previous years, with internationally recognized standards replacing graduate degrees and industry association certificates moving into third place.
While vendor certificates are still the least-rated in the recruiting process, they are highly-prized as indicators of ability to support specific products or technologies during the course of employment.
As for training, little has changed in the past few years Employers still prefer onsite training to offsite, with knowledge sharing with peers follows self-study (discs/ videos/books and e-Learning) as the top scores onsite.
The JCSE says it is “pleased” to note that more than half of all CIOs surveyed in South Africa say they have an active IT internship or apprenticeship programme in their organisations.
Offsite, academic institutions are just ahead of vendors and commercial training companies as the venue or supplier of choice, but there is little to choose between these results.
Top occupations in demand
For those with the drive to move into IT, there’s good news. IT skills feature high on the South African government’s “National Scarce Skills List: Top 100 Occupations in Demand”, which cites a scarcity of such diverse occupations as ICT systems analysts, software developers, ICT project managers, computer network technicians and network analysts.
And while it is true that a great many companies tend to use service providers to fill IT skills gaps, forward-looking organisations are creating career paths for emerging disciplines such as cloud, analytics and data science, says Gartner.
“More specifically, the 2016 JCSE ICT Skills Survey found that big data design and analytics are high on any corporate’s most-wanted skills list both now and in the future, but that people to fill these posts will be very scarce, which it describes as worrying,” Joubert added.
“There’s also a big gap in supply and demand in infrastructure design/management, process management and information security, with the latter outranking all others, as many companies are increasingly concerned about security.”
Demand continues to be high for database management systems skills, followed by customized and bespoke software.
The JCSE also found very little growth over the past four years in the animation and mobile and gaming categories there has been little growth in the past four years.
Demand by sector
The JCSE Survey places banking as one of the top sectors on the hunt for rare skills, which include
- Digital designers
- Systems engineers (process engineers, systems architects, IT system developers)
- Forensic/fraud/security specialists
- Business analysts
- Digital forensic analysts and investigators
- Mobile and digital specialist
- Systems integrator/systems architecture
According to the Banking Sector Skills Plan 2013-201, entrants into the banking market must understand technology and the shift in the way of doing business in the sector. As a result of technology, most scarce skills are not directly related to banking. These include computer programmers, process engineers and generally people in the ICT industry. This paradigm shift to a digital dispensation requires the following set of skills: sales staff that understands technology and relationship management and process engineers that understand controls should possess banking experience and customer relations skills.
In the education sector, the JCSE reports that besides the normal skills required in other sectors, schools and universities are looking for maths, physical science and ICT teachers, lecturers and training specialists.
Accountancy is another sector experiencing a skills shortage in fields other than finance, says the JCSE. Scarce skills are much like those of the banking sector, with continued increasing demand for ICT systems analysts, software developers, programmer analysts, developer programmers, applications programmers, and database designers and administrators.
Safety and security is one of the fastest growing sectors in the ICT arena, and here there are a number of glamorous-sounding occupations in short supply, including cyber-crime investigators and incident response management, likely the fastest-growing segment in this sector.
Candidates with cloud security skills are most in demand but also most challenging to find. According to a report from Skyhigh Networks and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), to resolve the skills shortage in the security sector, 37 percent of businesses believe that hiring junior IT professionals and investing in training is the most effective way.
Finally, in the South African retail arena, 2016 JCSE ICT Skills Survey found high demand for e‑commerce planners, e-commerce managers, web integrators, e-retail managers, and e-retail assistant.
