SAITIS BASELINE STUDIES

1
SAITIS BASELINE STUDIES
Presentation to Human Resource Development
Working Group Midrand 4 October 1999 Tina James
IDRC
2
BACKGROUND

• SAITIS Baseline studies
• Two parts
• Overview of the IT industry
• Survey of Jobs and Skills
• Final report on IT Industry just completed
• Jobs and Skills due in November 1999

3
METHODOLOGY

• SAITIS Baseline studies
• Methodology based on
• Interviews
• Discussion Groups
• Review of secondary sources
• Mailscan

4
Why a Jobs and Skills Mailscan?

• Data required on
• Jobs available and planned for
• IT industry (hardware, software, etc)
• IT users (NGOs, associations, govt)
• Current trends in supply/demand
• Income levels
• Emigration / immigration statistics
• Brain drain
• Jobs profile
• part-time / contract / full-time
• turnover rate
• average length of service

5
Why a Jobs and Skills Mailscan?

• Data required on
• Current skills levels
• Future skills requirements
• Training time
• IT training spend
• Labour Intensivity
• Unionisation
• Little available at the detail required for
  SAITIS Baseline Studies

6
MAILSCAN

• Based on ITNQF domains
• Information Systems and Technology Management
• Systems Development
• End-user computing
• Data communications and networking
• Computer operations
• Hardware and computer architecture
• IT education, training and development
• IT sales and marketing, Other

7
MAILSCAN

• Based on ITNQF domains / and broken down into
• Employees by race / gender
• Temporary / permanent employees
• Vacancies
• Terminations
• Employment in 5 years time - forecasts

8
MAILSCAN

• Various institution-related information
• IT Training spend
• Outsourcing
• Social responsibility
• RD
• etc.

9
MAILSCAN

• 2 500 questionnaires
• 1st round of telephonic follow-up
• Collaboration with
• CITI (Cape IT Initiative)
• ITA Association
• No results available yet

10
Employment of Professionals1998 - 2003
11
PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS
12
IT PROFESSIONALS
13
MIGRATION FIGURES - 1997

• Occupation Emigration Immigration Net Migration
• Engineers 428 99 -329
• Medical Practitioners 73 45 -28
• Medical Specialists 26 4 -22
• Dental Professions 58 2 -56
• Education Related 353 125 -228
• Accountant related 277 27 -250
• Other 962 305 -657
• Managerial 885 357 -528
• Artisans 371 111 -260

14
SUPPLY / DEMAND TRENDS

• Name your price gt huge salaries
• lt four years in service
• IT imported skills too expensive short-term
  contracts
• Business services subsector is fastest growing -
  32 growth over five years
• Banking sector - 50 growth 1998 - 2003
• Demand for all IT professionals - 50 growth
• Need for experienced staff at senior level
• Combination of business/ technical skills
• Oversupply in some areas e.g. MCSE

15
HR STRATEGIES

• Salary structuring
• Name your price gt huge salaries
• Innovative package structuring

16
HR STRATEGIES

• Retention strategies
• Cross-skilling
• Increased emphasis on training
• Career planning
• Internal promotions
• Working environment
• flexibility / working at home / prestige /
  holiday leave / promotion potential / share
  options
• challenge of the job was important

17
EMERGING THEMES
LIBERALISATION OF TELECOMMS INDUSTRY
DEVELOP APPROPRIATE SKILLS BASE
DEVELOP STRONGER ENTREPRENEURIAL BASE
18
GENERAL ISSUES

• Need for a national strategic vision
• no national objectives
• lack of coordination
• education and training must be part of the
  national IT strategy (not separate initiative)
• Indicators are problematic
• Cannot read the changing character of the IT
  industry
• Difficult to assess current status in a
  meaningful way
• Comparing apples with pears - inconsistent
• No coordinated effort (yet) to streamline
  activities relating to HR measurement

19
IT COMPETITIVENESS - Implications for HR
Development?

• Development of niche markets
• target financial services / health / tourism
• Agent of the West
• e-commerce driver of the future
• interface between developed /developing not
  exploited
• Mobile computer rooms - Cyberwheels
• establish IT tourism
• best IT conference centre in the world
• interesting site visits (leading technology, 3rd
  world use of technology
• better public relations of IT abilities

20
COMPETITIVENESS - Implications for HR Development?

• Innovation
• little of it - low RD
• no investment in building human capacity in
  tertiary institutions?
• No of grantees through NRF is decreasing
• SMMEs
• too few not enough support structures
• too little training to grow entrepreneurs
• more entrepreneurial training form an early age
• where is the training, and who has access to it?

21
ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

• Access to Finance
• Low levels of awareness of what is available
• Awareness of opportunities around Skills Levy?
• Venture capital availability
• Not enough foreign investment
• Role of associations
• no one representative body
• need to improve government/industry interface
• associations to play a far stronger role in
  training

22
HR DEVELOPMENT

• Education and Training
• all levels (primary / secondary / tertiary)
• coordinated pipeline of skills development
• stronger government/ private sector /educational
  linkages
• create IT apprenticeships /proposed learnerships
• private sector to develop mentoring schemes
• vendors to play a stronger role in training
• government to play a more prominent role model in
  IT adoption and usage
• short-circuit training to alleviate short-term
  needs
• multi-skilling to be encouraged

23
HR DEVELOPMENT

• Brain drain
• Worldwide phenomenon - SA no exception
• Recruit It staff in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt,
  Israel and Eastern Europe
• Use ex-South Africans or those still working
  outside SA

24
CREATING AN INFORMATION SOCIETY IN SA

• Universal access
• Increase pool of IT-literate South Africans
• Creating general IT awareness
• Massive IT awareness campaign
• Working for Water model gt Working for
  Information programme
• Promotion of IT-literacy promotion on TV soaps,.
  etc

25
AND FINALLY.