Training and skills development has always been important, but never more so than in today’s fast-paced digital economy.
Technology is changing at such a rapid pace that it’s difficult for anyone to keep up – least of all the people tasked with running and using the IT systems responsible for keeping companies in business.
Kathy Gibson explores where we are locally in terms of skills, where we need to go, and how to get there.
Organisations that talk about transitioning to a digital economy are already behind the curve. In 2025, the global digital economy is a reality and organisations that are not on board with that are falling behind.
The technologies driving the digital economy have been available for years and are rapidly becoming more affordable. And new innovations are surfacing almost daily that can help companies become more competitive, more productive, and more profitable.
According to Hloni Mokenela, MD of Africa Analysis, which conducted the latest IITPSA Skills Survey, global digitalisation will account for $16,5-trillion dollars by 2030 – a massive 17% of global GDP.
This growth is being driven by several main trends: artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), which will grow 35% to reach $1,6-trillion by 2030; cybersecurity, which will reach $270-billion by 2019; and data science, expected to hit $470-billion by 2030.
But, to properly harness the available technology, it’s important that organisations ensure staff have the skills to not only develop and run new solutions, but also operate IT systems and services at all levels.
The IITPSA survey, published in October 2024, points to a shortage of IT and computer operational skills at almost every level within the South African economy.
This is an important point: we might think that skills shortages affect only the most highly-skilled members of the development team, but the reality is that, often, general staff members aren’t able to effectively operate the applications they use on a daily basis. So the skills shortage runs all the way through an organisation, limiting its ability to develop or use technology to the best of its ability.
As a result, businesses battle to employ the people they need; while the country is in the midst of a simultaneous unemployment crisis.
It’s obvious that training and skills development is the answer to both challenges, but it’s not always an easy solution.
IITPSA’s Adrian Schofield, a veteran of the IT industry and champion of skills development, says not much has actually changed in the skills landscape over the years.
“We have a very poor skills pipeline in South Africa because government persistently fails to invest in the right curriculum, teaching, and access to technology for schools,” he says. “Unless we can get young people engaged in technology at a young age, we will never have the opportunity to develop skills in sufficient numbers later on.”
While over 1-million six-year-olds start school every year, the reality is that fewer than half of them come through 12 years later with a matric certificate – and only a small percentage of these have the right STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects that allow them to consider a career in technology.
The situation is exacerbated by the new types of skills that are being required – and which are changing quickly. “If youngsters don’t have the right fundamental background, they will never be able cope with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data science and more – or be able to use these technologies to create a better life.”
Schofield’s core message for government and the industry is that we need to go back to basics.
“If we cannot fix the school system we will forever struggle to be competitive,” he warns. “The fact is that we have everything we need to thrive in the 21st century – data centres, contact centres, software development and more – but it continues to remain niche; and so the digital divide gets wider.”
Rather than relying on imported skills, companies should be working with government to solve the issues at home, Schofield says.
“Business needs to work with government and apply pressure to get things done,” he says. “We need to be having better conversations and talking about how to make local skills development work.”
There are encouraging signs that grassroots education is moving in the right direction, Schofield adds. Things like adding robotics and coding to the curriculum are a good start.
“But we mustn’t be rigid,” he warns. “What we need to do is let youngsters have access to devices, and encourage them to be curious about how they work.
“This is the ingredient that is often missing in the education environment: teaching young people to be curious, asking why things work the way they do, and how they can make things different. We need them to be asking questions, and then finding the answers.
“The greatest gift is learning how to be curious.”
Despite the challenges, Schofield says people have an insatiable ability to learn and giving them the foundation can only result in success.
“This is my undying message: the foundation is what allows people to build.”
Loraine Vorster, CEO of CompTIA South Africa, agrees that foundational skills are vital.
While all training – and particularly deliberate and planned training is vital – organisations are urged to not neglect to develop the most basic skills that many might take for granted.
CompTIA helps organisations carry out assessments to establish if there are any skills gaps, and Vorster says the results are often surprising.
“Whenever we do an assessment we find that foundational skills are scarce,” she says. “These skills are vital because it’s what everything else is built on.
“Too often, companies focus on developing the skills required to certify in particular products or systems, but they neglect the basics – the foundational skills.”
Particularly in IT, fault-finding and attention to detail are important, Vorster adds. “But if people haven’t mastered the basics, such as the entry-level A-Plus certification, how are they going to do their job effectively higher up the stack?”
She cites the example of an assessment CompTIA did for a multinational IT company that was paying hefty fines for missing service level agreement (SLA) deadlines. “We realised there was a big gap in their foundational skills, and the team was not diagnosing faults correctly because they lacked the basic skills.
“The implications could be as serious as that.”
Employers often simply assume that people with a higher-level certification have done the basics. “If you hire a cybersecurity specialist, you assume they know the basics. But many people don’t and, despite years of experience, can still make basic mistakes.”
Within the IT environment, Vorster adds, AI is a dominant trend at the moment, and likely to become more important in the future.
“Security remains prominent because of all the threats that organisations are facing; and it will probably always be an issue.”
In addition, cloud computing continues to grow, and skills in this area are in demand.
But it’s no good for organisations to simply guess at what skills they need: they need to take a more deliberate approach, Vorster says. And they could be surprised at what they find when a proper assessment is done.
“We are finding big gaps when we do assessments for companies,” she points out. “And the results are usually a surprise.”
Quite often, Vorster says, CompTIA uncovers a trend, or skills gap that is evident across a company or group.
“When we do an assessment, we examine job roles and the skills critical to those jobs; and generally there is a gap that pops up.”
Even when organisations offer and encourage training and skills development, they often fail to do so in a planned or deliberate manner, Vorster explains.
“Most companies have a learning library and do ad-hoc training; but it’s up to the individual to decide whether they’ll do the training, so it’s generally not planned or driven by the company.
“Doing a company-wide skills assessment helps them to see where they are now, and what skills are needed to fix any problems,” she adds. “They can then plan to get people skilled up to the level they should be for their current job, and ready for the next level.”
The bottom line, says Vorster, is that ad-hoc training doesn’t work, and leaving their skills development up to individuals generally doesn’t work either.
Although, quite often an assessment can identify if the company has any undiscovered gems in individuals that stand out, which is always a happy bonus. But, unfortunately, the exception rather than the rule.
“In IT, you need to be learning constantly,” Vorster says. “There is always a new technology, new software, new developments – you have to keep up to date all the time.”
“A couple of years ago, companies would offer incentives to get people into training, but individuals are starting to realise that if they want to get ahead, they need to be proactive about their own skills development.”