Big boost for e-skills coffers

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 27 Aug 2007

Over the weekend, multinational companies Oracle, NIIT, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard announced multimillion-rand initiatives to address the e-skills challenge.

They have each committed to building ICT educational institutions, with HP providing R150 million, Oracle R20 million and NIIT (an Indian ICT company) about R7 million. Microsoft also earmarked R100 million to expand its existing ICT graduate programme.

This follows the seventh annual Presidential International Advisory Council (PIAC) meeting held last week in KwaZulu-Natal.

Members of the PIAC include HP, IBM, SAP, Oracle, Intel, Cisco, South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth and venture capital investor Esther Dyson. Key local ICT players also attended the event.

The PIAC enables international ICT leaders to advise president Thabo Mbeki as to how ICT can be used to develop SA.

New ICT institutions

Oracle Europe, Middle East and Africa VP Sergio Giacoletto announced the formation of a Technology School of Leadership. The school will begin operations in January 2008, he said.

It will initially provide training for up to 500 learners, aiming for 1 000 to 2 000 graduates per year in subsequent years, he said.

Giacoletto noted that in February 2007, in liaison with the Gauteng Department of Education, Oracle opened the Ponelopele Oracle Secondary School, in Midrand, near Johannesburg, which serves 1 300 learners and has 38 staff members and 24 classrooms.

The combined investment of the Oracle ICT Institute and the Ponelopele Oracle Secondary School adds up to R20 million, he said.

Rajendra Pawar, chairman of NIIT, said his company would make an initial investment of $1 million (about R7 million) to form the NIIT ICT Institute.

It will be developed on a distributor model, where people can learn from the physical institute or online, and are not restricted by time or space limitations. The curriculum will be technology-neutral, and harmonised with the initiatives of other PIAC members, he said.

The institute is also scaleable, so the model can be repeated for the development of more institutes. "We're aiming for about 1 000 people in the first year."

HP said it would establish the HP Business Institute. It would provide an equity equivalent investment to meet HP's broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) obligations, said HP MEA MD Ken Willet.

Willet said the HP Business Institute would enable subsidised ICT training to employees of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and unemployed graduates.

It will officially launch in November, and begin operations in February 2008, he said. It is expected to provide training for up to 2 000 students and 300 SMEs annually.

Willet noted that HP is the first company to gain government approval for an equivalent investment in BBBEE.

Expansion plans

Microsoft undertook to extend its existing Graduate Academy programme, which provides training for people from underprivileged backgrounds and new graduates.

The programme started with 100 new graduates a year, with 150 graduating in 2006, said EMEA VP Ali Faramawy. Microsoft now aims to produce up to 3 000 graduates a year, a target that may be a little ambitious, he conceded.

Microsoft will fund 25% to 30% of the R100 million planned for the project, with the rest coming from the company's partners and employment recruiters.