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IT Organisations Set to Invest More to Help Bridge the ICT Skills Gap in Africa [New Vision (Uganda)](New Vision (Uganda) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) For ages now, the ICT Skills gap in Africa has been seen as a major challenge and it is through this that major tech companies are coming together to help bridge the gap by establishing academies to help bridge the gap. The working population of Africa is projected to double by 2020, making it the largest working population in the world by 2040. Naturally this makes skills development one of the top needs for the continent's and our business' growth. A lot of people talk about education but I believe it will be much better if people are equipped with the right skills in what they want to pursue. In January this year a study revealed that six years from now there will be 95 million equipped with wrong skills. Well, this is exactly what we would really like to reduce or avoid, said Duncan Mitchell, Senior Vice President, Middle East, Africa, Russia & CIS (MEAR). It is through this that Cisco partners with governments and organisations in Africa to support job creation by building ICT skills and talent as well as creating the opportunities to use those skills. Providing greater access to education opportunities for individuals, communities, and nations will undoubtedly positively impact the standard of living and the economic prosperity of countries. Cisco does this through its networking academies. Cisco partners with governments and organisations in Africa to support job creation by building ICT skills and talent as well as creating the opportunities to use those skills. Providing greater access to education opportunities for individuals, communities, and nations will undoubtedly positively impact the standard of living and the economic prosperity of countries. Every year, the Cisco Networking Academy, which reached one million students worldwide last year, teaches hundreds of thousands of students worldwide the skills needed to build, design and maintain networks. This in turn improves career prospects while filling the global demand for networking professionals. For instance in Kenya, Cisco Networking Academy program has helped young deaf people learn valuable job skills and increase their economic opportunities. In fact, in partnership with Norwegian development organization Deaf Aid, Cisco Networking Academy has been working hard to empower the deaf in Kenya. In Kenya it is estimated that there are about 270,000 deaf people in this country. The Cisco Academy at Deaf Aid offers ICT training based on the Cisco IT Essentials course to deaf students mobilized from disadvantaged backgrounds within Nairobi and its environments. This is a beginner course that sets the foundation for the students to pursue a career in computer networking based on the courses offered through the Cisco networking academy program. The vision is to expand this program so as to reach to as many people with disabilities as possible in our society. However, Cisco is not the only organisation out to help bridge this Mariana Kruger, Integrated Technology Services Executive, IBM South Africa said that as IBM they had a responsibility to help ensure this talented population has the right skills for the future and we have a set of initiatives - including Leading to Africa internship programme, Africa Technical Academy and our Universities Initiative across Africa that look to develop latest skills in cloud, analytics, mobile and social (CAMS), real-world experiences and an undeniable passion for Africa to help deliver this strategy for IBM, our clients and business partners. On her take on how organisations can help bridge the ICT Skills gap, Louise Taute, Comstor Director said, Comstor is seeing a growing skills gap amongst our resellers particularly when it comes to the cloud and the convergence of technologies. We believe that the solution lies in partnerships between government and public sector companies; nurturing incubator companies and start-ups; and skills investment and education. We are in a position where things such as the Internet of Everything and the cloud is changing the way business is done and this is opening new support avenues that can be explored such as remote service support centres that cover regions and not just countries. Then, from a channel point of view, the all-important continuation of incentives and programmes, supported by vendors, to help encourage and support training initiatives is crucial. In Kenya, Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, Huawei and IBM have been in the forefront to help equip the young people with the right skills through their initiatives, academies and even through internships in their organisations. COPYRIGHT (c) 2014 NEWVISION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |