- The latest JCSE-IITPSA ICT Skills Survey is the 12th one released to date.
- The percentage of employers looking to recruit overseas ICT skills has grown significantly.
- The authors of the survey described the trend as, “disturbing, given the continuing high levels of unemployment in South Africa.”
This week the 2022 JCSE-IITPSA ICT Skills Survey was released, looking at the current ICT skills landscape and unearthing some trends in that regard.
This is the 12th such survey to be carried out to date by Wits University’s Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) in partnership with the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA), and the support of the Information Technology Association (ITA).
While the full report can be downloaded and inspected here, the authors of the survey, Adrian Schofield, production consultant at the IITPSA, and Professor Barry Dwolatzky, director of the JCSE, have shared some insights.
Searching abroad
The most eye-catching insight is the fact that more South African employers are looking overseas when it comes to hiring ICT skills. This is as the percentage has increased from 38 percent in the previous report to 50 percent now. The pair describe this trend as, “disturbing, given the continuing high levels of unemployment in South Africa.”
One of the reasons why this is happening is time and investment, with employers simply unable to take on recent graduates and upskill them given ever-shrinking budgets and truncated timelines for results.
“With pressures on business margins making employers less willing to wait for graduates to ‘get up to speed,’ the number of enterprises saying it had become harder to recruit increased from 20% last year to 35% this year,” a press release regarding the survey explains.
“Employers recruiting skills overseas say critical skills visas are growing in importance, and that changes to the critical skills list and critical skills visa (CSV) criteria have impacted many of them, with 25% saying the list amended in 2022 has made it harder to obtain the skills they need,” it adds.
It also looks like the foreign skills market is a more attractive avenue than ever before for local ICT practitioners, with almost 30 percent of respondents already working, or planning to work, remotely, and more than 50 percent saying they are considering doing so.
“Although firm statistics are not readily available, we do know that many highly qualified and experienced ICT practitioners are taking their skills overseas, to more stable social environments, to more lucrative economies and to better futures for their families. This represents a massive drain on our education and training resources, as the return on our investment in these practitioners is gained by the foreign territory,” adds the JCSE’s Dwolatzky.
Left wanting
This survey also amplifies an issue we have known about for some time – unemployment.
Here even highly skilled ICT graduates are finding an extremely tough time acquiring gainful employment. According to the survey, among ICT practitioners, only half of ICT graduates are able to find employment immediately after graduating, with around 25 percent taking six months to a year to find work.
“It continues to disappoint us that a significant proportion are still having to wait up to one year to become employed,” the IITPSA’s Schofield emphasised.
“It is incumbent on the private sector to drive the required changes through partnership with government and expansion of the many initiatives taking place. We are heartened by the planned changes to curriculum and teacher training but it is vital that these plans are implemented without delay and with appropriate funding. Equally important as strengthening the skills pipeline is the creation of work opportunities for the newly-skilled,” he rallied.
While there have been calls to upskill and invest in the training of ICT graduates, it looks like this industry is not immune to the effects of unemployment that are rife across South Africa.
[Image – Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash]
