Page 15 - EngineerIT October 2021

ICT

According to the report, the top occupations with hard to fill vacancies in the MICT sector
(and the quantity needed) were:
• software developer (2 434)
• computer network technician (1 948)
• developer programmer (823)
• ICT communications assistant (755)
• computer network and systems engineer (731)
• ICT security specialist (713)
• ICT systems analyst (676)
• web technician (514)
• systems administrator (405)
• programmer analyst (397) Adrian Schofield
• management consultant (business analyst) (359)
• advertising specialist (224)
• telecommunications network engineer (164)
• data base designer and administrator (114)

Schofield noted the increase in vacancies since the 2019 report and highlighted the
challenge of relating an occupation to the core skills required to carry out the tasks thereof.
He emphasised the comparison with the top priority skills listed by employers participating
in the survey overall, which were:
• Information security/cyber security
• Big data design/ analytics
• DevOps
• AI/ML
• Application development Barry Dwolatzky
• Data management
• Test automation/performance testing of an obsession in recent years. We
• Internet of things have also seen a mushrooming of coding
• Connectivity academies and “coding bootcamps”.
I would question whether the mass
Skills gap persists acquisition of skills in coding and robotics
On the question: is there a digital skills shortage? Schofield said: “Yes, there is and should be our priority in preparing South
it’s ongoing. From the practitioners’ perspective, the skills gaps are real, measured in Africa for 4IR. Coding is hard to master and
thousands locally and millions globally. We are still not seeing sufficient numbers coming frustrating if you only learn it superficially.”
through the skills pipeline.” His advice for future-proof
“The future is still about the foundations: education, getting more people comfortable qualifications was to first strive to
with STEM subjects, ensuring that people have the aptitude for STEM and ICT subjects, complete a university degree – any
ensuring that people gain practical experience, and we must approach the question of university degree. “Over the three years
gender equality in the sector much more robustly,” he said. of an undergraduate programme you
Schofield noted that Continuing Professional Development would remain critical. will learn to learn, communicate and
“Employers consistently say they need to reskill employees, and vendors must identify sell. With a degree under your belt,
competencies that will be replaced so they can also show where practitioners can be learn the foundational skills required in
moved to new areas. All the practitioners participating in the survey say they want to learn the 4IR-related job you may wish to be
new skills, but they need to know how and where, and how to choose from the menu.” doing. These foundational skills can be
“Skilling is an investment for employers and practitioners, for long term sustainability. acquired via a good set of online courses
Government’s challenge is the industry’s challenge: funding the investment required or other alternative learning pathways.
in education and training to support the investments in infrastructure and services. We But remember that technical skills such
need to combine thinking and resources in government and industry to ensure these as software development require many
investments are channelled, coordinated and productive.” hours of practice,” he said. n

Future-proof qualifications The full report can be downloaded here
The report noted growing concern among young people about what to study to prepare for 4IR https://www.iitpsa.org.za/jcse-iitpsa-skills-
careers. Professor Barry Dwolatzky said: “Learning ‘coding’ seems to have become something survey/

Listen to an interesting discussion with the authors of the survey here

EngineerIT | October 2021 | 13