N Pandor: ICT Colloquium on Education and Training

19 March 2007

Professor Saleem Badat, Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University
Professor Loyiso Nongxa, Vice-Chancellor of Wits University
Deans, faculties and Heads of Departments
Representatives from the private sector
Ladies and gentlemen

Good Morning

Government's target is to halve unemployment by 2014. In order to reach that
target our growth rate needs to be 6% by 2010.

The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) has
identified a number of constraints to achieving this target, one of which is a
shortage of skills. In this regard, AsgiSA has placed a strong emphasis on
training more engineers, architects, town planners, accountants, actuaries,
artisans and ICT professionals.

Chairperson, it is within this context that I am pleased to be part of this
gathering, which brings together the private sector, researchers and
information and communications technology experts to discuss the state of
education for our ICT sector.

In 2001 the President established the Presidential International Advisory
Council on Information Society and Development, a body constituted to ensure
that South Africa does not lag behind in the ICT field.

The Council consists of a group of Chief Executive Officers, Presidents and
heads of major international corporations and experts, who are active in the
field of information and communications technology; it also includes cabinet
ministers.

The President announced important new projects to improve our ICT
infrastructure this year, as part of our effort to improve our global
connectivity for the benefit of business and individuals.

We, in the education and training system, must play our part in these new
developments. It is thus very appropriate that this colloquium is to focus on
graduate shortages in the ICT field, and to formulate steps that might be taken
to address those shortages.

I am particularly pleased to note that the programme is structured to
include perspectives from industry, higher education and government. I hope
that those perspectives will not just articulate problems, but will also
propose solutions.

Government's intention to improve our ICT capacity has been firmly
established in higher education. The 2001 National Plan for Higher Education
emphasised the need to increase enrolment and graduation in science,
engineering and technology programmes.

I am pleased to report that the recently concluded enrolment-planning
exercise of the Department of Education indicates that science and technology
enrolment will comprise 30% of total enrolment by 2010; it was 25% in 2001.

This represents an enrolment of 246 000 students in SET by 2010. However,
information technology represents only 5% of total enrolment, and 4% of total
graduates, representing approximately 5 000 graduates per year. These numbers
fall short of industry projected needs.

In addition, we only produce an annual average of 150 masters and doctoral
graduates in the ICT sector.

Higher education is the only sector to provide responses to our ICT
challenges alone. The Further Education and Training (FET) college sector has
been reshaped to respond.

The colleges now offer eleven programmes as part of the new National
Vocational Certificate. Students enrolling in these programmes currently
receive a full-cost bursary. The Information Technology and Computer
Applications programme is oversubscribed. Given the demand for such skills, I
am particularly interested in partnering with the private sector to develop
innovative options for increasing our ability to respond to such demands.

In addition to our concerted effort to increase the number of ICT graduates
at universities and colleges, we are introducing ICT education in schools in
line with the policy outlined in the e-Education White Paper.

The challenge for us is to ensure that all students who enrol at either
higher education institutions or FET colleges succeed and complete their
programmes. Moreover, students will be encouraged to pursue postgraduate
studies.

The private sector can also play a significant role in the provision of
skills for our economy. We are fortunate that a significant number of companies
- like CISCO Systems, Sun Microsystems - have established ICT academies.

The private sector has also been very supportive in partnership with higher
education institutions, in the training of graduates and the search for
knowledge solutions. Examples are numerous and range from the donation by Cray
Computers of the use of their supercomputer to the South African Bioinformatics
Institute at the University of the Western Cape to the partnership between Sun
Microsystems, Telkom and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University to develop
new solutions in the fast-evolving telecommunications sector.

Similarly, government has established, in partnership with higher education
institutions and science councils, the Centre for High Performance Computing
often referred to as the Africa Advanced Institute for ICT or the Meraka
Institute. The Centre is our national research, training and service
centre.

I would like to conclude by posing a few challenges to those gathered
here.

First, how do we deepen and expand the existing partnerships between the key
role-players: between education institutions, the private sector and government
to increase the number of graduates in IT?

Second, what new partnership opportunities are possible?

Third, what are the innovative solutions that could assist higher education
institutions improve the throughput rates of their graduates?

Fourth, what are the actual skills needs, in which areas, who is doing the
research on this?

Fifth, what innovative mechanisms should we consider to encourage
universities and the private sector to increase their investment in ICT
research and skills development?

These are some of the questions that I hope this colloquium will attempt to
address.

During the launch of the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition
(JIPSA) on 27 March 2006, the Deputy President said:

"As a country, South Africa has as yet not taken the matter of skills to a
skills revolution level. To achieve that, we must be united as a nation in
pursuit of this goal."

I have no doubt that the discussions here today will provide a focused
implementable, rich and rewarding response to that challenge.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Education
19 March 2007