Hi-tech job search
SCHOOLS and universities are failing to provide the training that would allow SA to start filling the estimated 30000 hi tech positions that are vacant, Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena says.
“We are not doing well at all at school or university level,” the minister said yesterday at a technology conference staged by Telkom.
Companies were often perfectly justified in complaining about the quality of graduates and their unsuitability to enter the working world.
Academics, the government and the industry needed to come together to finally find ways to resolve the issue. Long running efforts to achieve that had not been successful.
“There is a level of interaction but, frankly, it’s not sufficient,” he said.
“We need to intensify that so as a matter of course universities will interact with the industry on their own without the government being involved.”
One problem was that some universities simply did not want to evolve.
“If you think the Catholic church is conservative, try universities,” he said.
Some universities viewed what was happening in the world of work as “vulgar” and would rather concentrate on the niceties of academia.
Science, technology and telecoms were still sexy subjects where professionals could earn a lot of money, but the root cause of the skills shortage went back far further than problems with universities.
Schools were not producing enough students with the right knowledge to study subjects such as maths, physics and chemistry at university level.
“They don’t have the skills to enter those arenas. We need to get the schools right first,” Mangena said.
Telkom CEO Reuben September said another problem was that companies were selfish in thinking only of their own needs when it came to running or funding training courses. They did very little to build up a skills pool for the industry in general.
Telkom had a reputation as a training ground for the industry because so many other companies simply poached its employees after they had gained sufficient experience to make them valuable, he said.
The science and technology department has launched a 10 year initiative to promote studies in IT. As part of that, it aims to create world-class research competencies and boost the number of people working in the sector.
The initiative was approved by the cabinet last year.
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