Skills gap to continue

Johannesburg, 18 Oct 2006

A skills survey has indicated that most companies will seek to enhance their IT staff complement over the next year, but that a lack of skills in three key areas is likely to persist.

The survey, undertaken by ITWeb and Fidentia online during September, found that the top three areas in which there is a shortage of staff are in configuration and change management, process management and software testing.

Respondents to the survey indicated these results were unlikely to change over the next 12 months.

The survey captured the responses of 489 people who spend more than half their time focused on specific IT tasks. Of these, 80% of the respondents were male, 60% were between the ages of 26 and 40, and 85% are in permanent employment.

Project management, presentation and communication skills, and mentoring were the top three softer skills that management cited as critical to their IT staff`s development.

However, companies do have plans to alleviate these shortages. Among steps being taken by firms is company-sponsored training, encouraging the development of skills and recruitment.

Global battle

Fidentia Software Futures principal consultant Jaco Viljoen points out that the skills shortage is not a local phenomenon. "SA is part of the global battle for brains."

He says IT staff are facing increasing workloads and 53% of companies have plans in place to prepare IT staff for management positions, indicating that staff additions will have to be made.

"Expect the skills shortage to get bigger over the next 12 months."

While only 45% of companies had increased their staff complement in the last year, 63% of firms reported they would be hiring in the next 12 months.

Despite the growth in jobs, "there are still people out there who don`t have the right skills and can`t fill the gaps," says ITWeb editorial director Ranka Jovanovic.

Job categories listed as experiencing the most growth include project management, application development, and help-desk or end-user support. The inclusion of end-user support in the top three could be as a result of SA`s aggressive growth strategy to reach 6% economic growth by 2010, a vision that relies heavily on the business process and outsourcing sector, suggests Jovanovic.

In the next 12 months, application development is expected to move to the forefront of job categories experiencing the most growth, followed by systems analysis and database development.

SETA`s view

Professor Barry Dwolatzky, academic director at the Wits Joburg Centre for Software Engineering, points out that the Information Systems, Electronics and Telecommunications Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority (ISETT SETA) has prioritised lower- and middle-end skills.

Its sector skills plan, released as a draft in August, indicates lower-end jobs such as manufacturing, production, integration and testing in the IT sector will experience the highest amount of demand.

Dwolatzky says the SETA found that white males currently fill 47% of these positions, and 79% of them have either diplomas or certificates. Seven percent of current vacancies lie in this area, but these skills are expected to see demand growth of 57% in the next two years.

On more highly qualified positions, the SETA found there would be much less demand growth. For example, points out Dwolatzky, 62% of all project managers are white and male, highly qualified, and not in much shortage. He says only 6% of all vacancies are for this type of position, and demand is only expected to grow 2% in the next two years.

Designers are mostly white and male, and are also highly qualified. Eight percent of all current vacancies are for these qualifications and this job function is only expected to grow 9% in the next two years.

However, Dwolatzky says none of these positions can function effectively without critical areas such as project managers, architects and designers.