{"id":30262,"date":"2019-11-18T14:13:38","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T14:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=30262"},"modified":"2019-11-22T10:45:09","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T10:45:09","slug":"bridging-the-technology-skills-gap-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2019\/11\/18\/bridging-the-technology-skills-gap-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridging the technology skills gap in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Trent Odgers, Cloud and Hosting Manager, Africa at Veeam, believes that the time has come to show the emerging workforce the value of being at the cutting-edge of how the future is being shaped.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up to 20 million young people are expected to join the African workforce annually over the next two decades and, by 2030, 60% of the continent\u2019s population will consist of those under the age of 25. With the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) becoming a focus point, all signs are pointing to the importance of putting the technology skills in place to meet the data demands of this rapidly evolving environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, it\nhas become very difficult to find good ICT talent in South Africa with many\nspecialists immigrating to the likes of Australia, Canada, Ireland and New\nZealand. Simply put, not enough has been done to fill this gap by educating\nscholars on the potential that exists in this sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The time has come\nto show the emerging workforce the value of being at the cutting-edge of how\nthe future is being shaped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ubiquity of\nmobile devices, the emergence of cloud computing, and faster (and more\naffordable) data access speeds have contributed to the Digital Transformation\nagenda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has seen\ncompanies struggling to keep up with the data-driven expectations of customers\nwho are more connected than ever and have access to so much information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People want their\nsocial media queries responded to in real-time and expect service providers to\ndevelop products based on their unique requirements. All of this is driven by\nthe growth of data and analytical solutions that encompass Artificial Intelligence\n(AI) and Machine Learning (ML).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The connected world\nis less about throwing human resources at a problem and more geared towards\nfinding the right kind of talent to complement the technology. This means\nemployees and graduates need to be equipped with the skills needed to unlock\nthe potential that AI and ML bring to fully take advantage of this new\ntechnology driven world. These technologies are replacing many\nadministrative-focused positions providing employees with an opportunity to\ndeliver more strategic value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This value does not\nnecessarily require years of experience. Instead, it requires people who are\nwilling to apply their skills to a variety of different things. The\nout-of-the-box thinkers need to adopt a figure it out mentality as many\nopportunities are new and still to be defined. Those individuals that are\nwilling to work hard and go the extra mile will be the ones getting the most\nadvantage in this environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies need to\nreskill themselves and be open to embracing data-led culture. The emerging\nworkforce have grown up only knowing technology, continuous availability, and\ninstant gratification through real-time connections. Moreover, those\nindividuals that have a broad range of skills will stand out from their peers.\nThis is where partnering with tertiary institutions and government become\nvital. The private and public sectors must show, and support with the necessary\ntraining and development, what the necessary skills are for the 4IR and\neducation must help drive home the theoretical aspects of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already, several\nyouth development programmes have been launched in the partner and vendor\necosystems of ICT solution providers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, more can be\ndone to attract and enable the youth towards tech-driven organisations. South\nAfrica, as with many countries on the continent, also needs to compete with the\nglobal market to offer those talented individuals a different quality of life\nthat has less to do with the job and more with how they live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things like\nphysical safety, career opportunities, and perks beyond a competitive salary\nare all important factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ICT skills\nshortage urgently needs to be addressed so that South Africa can secure its\nfuture for the next generations to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trent Odgers, Cloud and Hosting Manager, Africa at Veeam, believes that the time has come to show the emerging workforce the value of being at the cutting-edge of how the future is being shaped. Up to 20 million young people are expected to join the African workforce annually over the next two decades and, by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":30263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,843,328,136,6,19,260,9059,13,262],"tags":[7290,496,386,389,1002,157,392,7257,453,8753,501],"class_list":["post-30262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-editors-choice","category-features","category-industry-expert","category-insights","category-regional-news","category-regional-news-newsletter","category-south-africa","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-4ir","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-digital-transformation","tag-fourth-industrial-revolution","tag-ict","tag-machine-learning","tag-ml","tag-south-africa","tag-trent-odgers","tag-veeam"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30262"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30266,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30262\/revisions\/30266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}