More skilled people needed in telecoms
“There is an inadequate trickle of suitably qualified candidates entering the sector,” said CEO Sandra Burmeister.
“As a result, industry players rely to a high degree on in-company training so as to develop the required skills.”
Burmeister said when it comes to employment equity, the survey showed that the telecoms industry employs a significantly high number of black candidates at executive and senior management level compared to the average across all industries.
It showed that 44.0 percent of top management is black, compared to the all-industry average of 24.2 percent.
In senior management, 37.3 percent are black, compared to the 32.4 percent all-industry average.
“When it comes to the mid-management or professional level, telecoms has a profile similar to other industries, while the sector lags in regard to skilled technical staff.”
In regard to employment equity at top management levels, the public sector including Telkom included is at 70 percent which is substantially better than the private sector at 38 percent.
However, the position is reversed when it comes to skilled technical staff, with the private sector at 70.4 percent and the public sector at only 48.2 percent.
The industry also lacks with regard to gender equity, particularly in skilled technical levels, with women making only 32.2 percent compared to other industries at 39.3 percent.
“There are significantly fewer women in technical and engineering positions across all disciplines and industries, not just telecommunications, largely because of the small number of technically qualified staff available,” said Burmeister.
She said the telecoms private sector was doing better than government telecoms when it comes to gender equity at all levels, particularly skilled technical levels, with women making up 42.5 percent of staff in comparison to the public sector’s 24 percent.
“Gender equity rather than employment equity is clearly the area that requires focus. More work is also required at the professional and skilled levels to create a pipeline for sustainable business growth in the future.”
Burmeister said skills development took place across all staffing levels and that there was a “great deal” of cross-pollination between the information technology and telecoms sectors as a result of the convergence of technology.
She said qualifications were varied and not limited to degrees or diplomas, with emphasis on vendor training for new technologies.
South Africa’s telecoms sector is estimated to be worth R99 billion and is growing at 14 percent a year.
Telecoms skills in SA – comments and views
Loading ...