Industry delivers on skills promises

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 21 Nov 2007

At least three of the companies that made skills promises at president Thabo Mbeki`s Presidential International Advisory Council on Information Society and Development (PIAC-ISAD), in August, have started delivering on them.

Oracle, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Indian IT company NIIT used the meeting as a platform to announce multimillion-rand initiatives to address the country`s e-skills challenge.

Each committed to building or expanding an educational institution, with HP promising R150 million, Oracle R20 million and NIIT about R7 million. Microsoft earmarked R100 million to expand its existing graduate programme.

The Department of Communications is meanwhile readying to pilot its e-Skills Institute under former deputy director-general for policy development Harold Wesso. It will form part of the Meraka Institute.

Communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri recently told Parliament that a memorandum, "outlining the conceptual framework of the Meraka e-Skills Institute, will be submitted to Cabinet" soon.

"A stakeholder consultation strategy is to be developed following the approval of the concept by Cabinet. Pilot projects to train in programming and project management, starting January 2008, are being discussed with corporate partners."

Corporates deliver

Microsoft says it is not one of those partners, but company director, developer and "platform evangelist" David Ives adds that the multinational`s plans are continuing apace. "Our placement and recruitment drive is timed with the academic calendar and we are currently recruiting for the new year," he says. "We are working on other programmes to improve the pipeline for skills development and details of this will be disclosed in the new year."

HP will, this coming Monday, launch its Business Institute, which will host a programme aimed at graduates in the small and medium enterprise sector and "focus on developing scarce and critical skills in high-growth areas of the IT industry".

Oracle, meanwhile, appears to have trimmed its ambitions. Speaking at the PIAC-ISAD, the company`s Europe, Middle East and Africa VP Sergio Giacoletto announced the formation of a Technology School of Leadership that would begin operations in January 2008.

He said it would initially provide training for up to 500 learners, aiming for 1 000 to 2 000 graduates per year in subsequent years.

The Technology School of Leadership has now become the e-Skills Academy - in which Oracle has a 40% stake, senior management 15% and a BEE partner 45%.

CEO-designate Dan Ellappa says the academy will initially cater for 250 students - graduates and undergraduates. It will be the country`s "premier school of technology leadership" and will sit its first class on 21 January.

"We are looking at developing a programme that we are calling a 'mini IT MBA` and the whole idea behind that programme is to look at how we develop future CIOs and solutions architects," he says.

Ellappa adds he is also "looking at running an applications and technology school within the academy and there we will focus on applications across the board" in a vendor-agnostic way.

The academy opens tomorrow.

Additional reporting by Damaria Senne.