Scarce and Critical SkillsSouth Africa

Dan Ellappa May 2008

Scarce: in short supply, limited, inadequate, insufficient, plentiful (antonym)

Critical: significant, vital, important, essential, crucial, key, insignificant (antonym)

Skills: ability, talent, expertise, competence, aptitude, handiness

South Africa has a significant limitation in their people’s ability to work …

PIAC

• The seventh meeting of the Presidential International Advisory Council on Information Society and Development (PIAC on ISAD) which advises President Thabo Mbeki in the areas of the Information and Communications Technologies, took place from the 24 to 26 August 2007 at San Lameer, Kwa-Zulu Natal ended today.

• Building on last year’s discussion, the theme for this year’s meeting was e-skills.

• The meeting noted Cabinet’s adoption of a three year dual illumination period for South Africa to move to Digital broadcasting, the Information Society and Development (ISAD) Plan and the institutional mechanisms for the development of an inclusive Information Society in South Africa.

E-Skills council of the Department of Communications

• Arising out of last year’s recommendation on the need to establish an e-Skills Council in South Africa to address skills shortages in ICT sector, the ICT industry presented proposals on composition and mandate of the e-Skills Council and the Working Group on the Council.

• The Council is composed of Ministers of Communications, Education, Trade and Industry, Labour, DPSA, Science and Technology and members with international ICT skills development experience nominated by the Advisors.

• The role of the e-skills Council is to provide advice on services and programmes that can have a measurable impact on ICT-related skills in South Africa to oversee the quality and standards of the e-skills provided. The focus should not only be on skills in the current period but also skills that will required in the future, including e-skills related to all aspects of life such as the arts and those required by the public sector to improve service delivery.

Introduction

• 17% of school leavers achieved the standard necessary to proceed to university.

• 50% passed but did not qualify to proceed to university.

• 33% failed matric.

• 535 000 young people left school between the end of 2005 and 2007 with no “passing” certificate and into a very uncertain future.

• The majority of these will join the ranks of the unemployed — young people between the ages of 20 and 24 comprise 14% of the labour force.

• They are over-represented (27%) in the unemployed. • 7,2 million illiterate people in South Africa.

• Prognosis for the “matric” classes of 2010 and 2011 is not much better.

• Class of 2010 (Now Grade 10) – in 2001 (then Grade 3)

– 30% did not have required standard of numeracy

– 54% did not have the required standard of literacy

• Class of 2011(Now Grade 9) – in 2005 (then Grade 6)

– 72% did not have the required standard of numeracy

– 62% did not have the required standard of literacy

• New single education system has not as yet resolved the problem

– 1 in 10 white children achieved an “A” aggregate

– 1 in 1000 black children achieved an “A” aggregate

– 66% of higher-grade maths passes – by 7% of the schools

– 0,6% of these are in historically African schools.

Based on a national survey of performance by Dept. Education

11 major ‘families’ of occupation are currently experiencing shortages of skilled people -

1. Engineering and built environment professions.2. Health professions.3. Finance professions.4. Law professions.5. City planners.6. IT/ICT professions.7. Natural science professions.8. Management professions.9. Education professions.10. Transport professions.11. Artisans.

Unemployed graduates

Universities First- timeundergraduatesin 2000

Dropped outby 2004%

Graduated by2004%

Notcompleted by2004%

University total

38 407 38 50 12

Technikon Total

43 484 58 32 10

Distance Education Total

37 798 71 9 20

Source: The Minister of Education released these figures in a written answer to a question in Parliament, September 2006.

Unemployed graduates

A huge drop-out factor prevalent –

• 38% of university students• 58% of technikon students • 71% distance education students

leaving these institutions in the period 2000-2004.

Unemployed graduates

The actual unemployment rate for this group has increased by half,from 6.6% to 9.7%, which represents the largest relative change for alleducation groups.

A disturbing finding is the -• High levels of unemployment among graduates with certificates and diplomas

in scarce skill areas such as business, commerce, management and the natural sciences.

• Perceived poor quality of tuition at historically disadvantaged higher

education institutions. • Poor labour market value of diploma and certificate courses obtained from

FET Colleges, the former technikons and many private institutions offering these qualifications.

• Absence of opportunities for work placement, and poor career guidance at school (DPRU, 2006: 19-20).

State of Skills 2006 - 2007

• Significant inefficiencies as South African learners move through higher education.

• Inadequate academic preparation

• Financial difficulties

• Lack of exposure to work experience

• Receiving tuition in a language other than the home language

• HIV and Aids

Solutions Are Not Simple

• Maths and science scores amongst the lowest on the World Competitiveness Scale.

• The Growing Association of unemployed graduates is becoming increasingly unemployable.

• What we have is the raw materials for the greatest system in the world.

• Our national human resources strategy is the best in the world, along with all the elements of the strategy – NQF, SAQA etc.

“People go out and get blanket skills. They don’t embed themselves

in a specific language.”

IT Services participant

“Training is expensive and the loss of working hours means less

revenue and more pressure on fewer people to complete tasks.”

Software development participant

We should challenge the notion of skills shortage and rephrase it to the

following: There is a shortage of skilled employment equity

candidates.”

IT Services participant

“We get new graduates in here and they have completed these incredible projects during their training. They do what one might call

“drag and drop” programming on .net platforms. When we ask them to develop an application utilising the basic building blocks of the platform they don’t know what to do.

We have to start from scratch.”

Software development company owner

• It is envisaged that the demand for IT professionals will exceed the supply by 24% by 2010.

• 60% of students drop out of University (mostly students from very poor homes – family income of R400 – R1 600 per month)

• Currently Tertiary institutions produce ± 4 400 IT graduates per annum. These also include a National Diploma in IT from Universities of Technology and Technikons.

• A 2007 study from IDASA on graduates in SADC regions shows that as many as 79% of final year students had considered moving to another country when they graduated.

IT skills supply and demand

Occupational Grouping Specialisation Magnitude of scarcityManagersICT Managers Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Managers6675

ProfessionalsHuman Resource and Training Professionals

ICT Trainers 710

Sales, Marketing and Public Relations Professionals

ICT Sales Professionals 4320

Business and Systems Analysts and Programmers

ICT Business and Systems Analysts 5555

Business and Systems Analysts and Programmers

Software and Applications Programmers 6185

Database and Systems Administrators and ICT Security Specialists

Database and Systems Administrators, and ICT Security Specialists

95

ICT Network and Support Professionals Computer Network Professionals  345

ICT Network and Support Professionals ICT Support and Test Engineers  4715

ICT Network and Support Professionals Telecommunications Engineering Professionals  990

Technicians and Trades WorkersICT and Telecommunications Technicians ICT Support Technicians 3 230

ICT and Telecommunications Technicians Telecommunications Technical Specialists  560

Call or Contact Centre Information Clerks Call or Contact Centre Workers 16 820

Sales WorkersSales Assistants and Salespersons ICT Sales Assistants 1 125

Shortages according to the National Scarce Skills list

• In order to meet the demand for skills in the ICT Sector, a more aggressive approach needs to be adopted.

• This also includes the inclusion of grade 12 students into ICT learning programmes for possible employment after successful completion.

• The most striking feature of the grade 12 class of 2007 is that it is the largest in our history of examining at this level.

Final Considerations

• The skills crisis is over. The skills catastrophe has begun. It stopped being a crisis when we started arguing about whether we had a crisis.

• We’re still talking about skills development and training: we’re not doing it. • The biggest challenges we face are overcoming our apathy. • We’re living and working in a global economy.

• The danger exists that companies will again abrogate their own training responsibilities and leave it up to government to resurrect Indlela and other similar facilities, simply poaching the graduates.

ShalomThank you