Skills dearth quantified, says minister

By Christelle du Toit, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 18 Jul 2007

Labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana has rubbished claims that SA cannot quantify its ICT skills shortage - yet his office cannot back this up with figures.

Speaking at a media briefing after the presidential working group meeting in Pretoria yesterday, Mdladlana said it is a fallacy that SA cannot quantify its skills shortage in the "critical area" of ICT.

"I would be surprised if anyone says we can't quantify the skills shortage," says Mdladlana. "We were required to produce a scarce skills list and we have identified key areas."

Yet, this morning, the deputy director-general for the department of labour, Sam Morotoba, could only provide a National Scarce Skills List, that is aligned with the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative of SA, but which does not contain data on how many individuals are needed in the different categories.

According to the department's list, SA requires:

* ICT managers;
* ICT project managers;
* call/contact centre and customer services managers;
* business and systems analysts and programmers;
* software and applications programmers;
* software engineers;
* multimedia specialists;
* network and support professionals;
* ICT security specialists and dimensional controllers;
* database administrators;
* telecommunications engineering professionals;
* ICT hardware technicians;
* ICT support technicians;
* electronics instrument trade workers; and
* telecommunications trades workers.

Morotoba said if more detailed data was needed - such as actual figures - it would have to come from the Information Systems, Electronics and Telecommunications Sector Education Training Authority (ISETT SETA).

Zolisa Sigabi, media advisor to the minister, in turn, said Equity Commission chairman Jimmy Manyi might have some specifics on how many ICT practitioners the country needs.

Last month, deputy communications minister Roy Padayachie said while it is generally agreed that there is a serious shortage of IT skills in SA, the extent of the skills deficit is still largely based on anecdotal evidence, as virtually no figures exist to quantify it.

Recently, visiting Indian ICT specialists questioned why no concrete data on the shortage existed, saying an industry body of CIOs would easily be able to generate such data. A local IT specialist added he has not yet seen any figures on SA's IT shortages that can stand up to scrutiny.

The minister was, however, adamant yesterday that these figures not only exist, but are detailed in setting out how many specific IT practitioners are needed in different parts of the industry.

"The list is available for everyone," said Mdladlana. He added the reason it has taken so long to establish skills shortage statistics is because the government "has been wrestling with SETA".

Filling the void

Tony Twine, senior economist for Econometrix, says the IT industry has "not a speck of data" on the IT skills shortage and is "a total vacuum" as far as this is concerned.

According to Twine, the IT industry, compared to other major industries such as banking, motor sales and the medical fields, "is very poorly represented by umbrella industries.

"If the minister says he has the data, then all I can say is good luck to him," says Twine. "I am not terribly confident without seeing it and seeing how exactly they [government] came by it."