For South Africa – and Africa – to remain competitive globally in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), urgent steps must be taken to upskill the youth and educators, and transform education.
This emerged during an education-focused Cloud Technology Forum hosted by AWS in Johannesburg this week.
Skhumbuzo Clement Mtetwa, acting chief information officer at the Department of Science and Innovation, said: South Africa’s ICT sector is now bigger than its agriculture sector, but as a country, we remain far behind the developed world and we have a widening ICT trade deficit. We are just consuming imported ICT products, but we need to develop our own home-grown solutions. To enable this, the education system of our country must be modernised and digital inequalities addressed. We need to offer students degrees, diplomas and certifications in line with what industry requires to grow the ICT sector.
To support local ICT skills development, the MICT SETA has come up with a framework for 4IR skills, and the DSI is funding skills development and research programmes in areas such as robotics and cybernetics, he noted. “In total, we are looking at about R1 billion in funding a digital economy,” Mtetwa said.
Attendees at the forum were polled, with 87% saying they believe technology is the key to driving skills development and growth in the South African economy. One participant from the Black IT Forum noted: “What graduates are taught and what industry does are very different. Learners can learn a particular course or skill in three months – they don’t need a three-year degree. Meanwhile, vendors and others who can provide those skills aren’t being given the status they need. Education and the government need to be more agile in equipping a 4IR workforce.”
Agnat Max Makgoale, Senior Account Manager at AWS, noted that AWS offers education and training, as well as tools for educators. “We are trying very hard to roll-out our programmes across the country. Universities are starting to accept that your standard degree doesn’t give you everything you need to become employable. The Educate programme and AWS Academy programme enable students to get additional certifications with subsidised exam fees. This could have a significant impact in terms of reducing unemployment and give local youths an opportunity to become employable globally,” he said.
AWS programmes help prepare students of all ages for competitive technology careers using cloud computing. These are available at no cost to qualifying educational institutions, educators and EdTech entrepreneurs. AWS Academy provides higher education institutions with a no-cost, ready-to-teach cloud computing curriculum that prepares students to pursue industry-recognised certifications and in-demand cloud jobs.
Meanwhile, AWS EdStart is a start-up accelerator that helps EdTech entrepreneurs build the next generation of online learning, analytics and campus management solutions.
One forum participant and founder of NPO Unite Siyafunda, which exposes underprivileged children to STEM subjects, robotics and coding, outlined how she had benefited from AWS free education programmes: “During the pandemic, I was unemployed and living in Orange Farm. I took advantage of the AWS learning programmes, using free WiFi at libraries and coffee shops to download the content to my phone. I made it, and am now employed at a law firm, as well as tutoring local children. I have also drafted my own coding and robotics curriculum,” she said.
“The opportunities are there. AWS is like a wonderful box of Lego with all the tools needed to start building the solutions we need in South Africa,” Makgoale said.
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