The Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) has launched its annual ICT Skills Survey and it’s inviting all those interested in taking part to weigh in with their input.

Currently in its seventh year, the survey aims to provide an outline of the current skill priorities and gaps in the South African ICT sector.

The skills survey consists of two questionnaires aimed at enterprises that employ people to carry out the vast range of ICT jobs and the other, practitioners in any capacity and at any level.

“Previous editions of the survey assisted in understanding the extremely complex environment of ICT extending from technology support to enterprise architecture, from data capture to cloud computing, from digital design to broadcasting,” Adrian Schofield, Manager, Applied Research Unit, JCSE said in a statement.

“Although we have seen a global recession in the last few years, demand in Europe and the United States for ICT skills appears to be increasing or holding steady,”Schofield added. “South Africa is falling behind its peers in Africa (such as Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt) who are putting greater emphasis on the contribution that technology plays in economic growth.”

Technology adoption sector trends reported in the last two surveys remained unchanged with cloud, big data/analytics, mobile, security and the internet of things making up the top five.

“The research programme for 2016 will examine to what extent these issues have been addressed in the local market and the influence of change on other markets supply of ICT skills in South Africa,” Schofield said.

The survey is open until 30 April and is scheduled for release in May 2016.

To participate, you can register and answer the questions on the JCSE site.

“Any help in gathering the relevant and up to date data will greatly assist the policy and decision makers who work tirelessly to close the skills gap in South Africa,” Schofield said.

[Image – CC Wikimedia Commons]