SA needs 'quality IT training`

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 26 Nov 2007

Thousands of South African parents, who often spent a lifetime saving for their children`s education, are robbed every year by unscrupulous operators who offer worthless qualifications, says e-Skills Academy CEO and former Oracle executive Dan Ellappa.

He says the problem is particularly distressing in the IT environment, where even some reputable organisations offer hollow certificates - credentials that will never land anyone a job.

"It`s often a matter of price. Parents enrol their children at places and for courses that seem affordable. But education should not be about price. It should be about value, about a return on investment.

"Education is not about giving a certificate for the sake of a certificate. It`s about creating sustainable jobs and getting such a job."

Speaking before the opening of the Oracle-sponsored e-Skills Academy last week, Ellappa said the proliferation of IT training institutions - in part for commercial opportunity, in part to beat the skills crisis - did not daunt him.

"The more the better, but when I speak of 'the more` I mean 'the more` of quality," he adds. "We should have as many quality institutions as we can afford to have, as long as there is a demand and a supply for that."

He says at Oracle he saw for himself the difference that a proper education made. "Through the Oracle University, over the last four years, we`ve created more than 400 permanent and contract jobs every year. And that`s creating an income for a family of anything between R10 000 and R15 000 that they`ve never had before.

"And the impact that has on the community is far greater than anything else I can imagine... It`s amazing what a difference it [the Oracle University] has made to their lives and their families` lives."

With most institutions currently enrolling students for 2008, Ellappa says parents, guardians and students should choose carefully.