The paradox is that there continues to be an ICT skills shortage while there continues to be a high number of unemployed graduates
So, is there a skills “crunch” or not?
Career Junction Index confirms high demand fro software developers
MICT SETA shows relatively low growth in employment numbers in the sector.
Employers on the left and practitioners on the right. Just over half of both types of respondent are in the ICT sector – the rest spread across the economy.
Corporate respondents – pretty senior
Skills priorities show broad range of needs
Change in priorities over last 4 years – mobile has appeared in 2011
Application Development is top 1st priority, Software as a Service is top 2nd priority and Mobile has moved in to become top 3rd priority.
This graph shows the relative importance attached to the management of certain business capabilities and the current capacity of the employers in each area. The lack capacity row is the most significant.
A variety of ways to retain skills. Note that almost 10% of companies report they have no policy!
We asked employers to rate the value attached to qualifications when recruiting – the higher the number, the greater the value. Graduates are the clear favourites. But note the last columns on the right…
…head-hunting is becoming more significant.
We asked employers what were their choices as sources of recruitment – employment agencies and the Web top the list
This is a little bit busy but shows the areas of skills needed currently and anticipated in a year’s time. Optimists show that there will be an improvement but this trend has remained the same for the last 4 years.
With apologies for the Csharp / C# error (courtesy of Career Junction Index)
Most practitioners less than 5 years with current employer and in current role
Broad mix of job roles. Note that the term “specialist” has become significant in 2011.
P = Platform (not many working on mainframes). A= Applications.
The juggler phenomenon continues, with most practitioners carrying out multiple tasks – more than 5 in the case of technical roles and almost 4 in the case of business roles.
How did the practitioners acquire skills last year (blue) and how do they intend to acquire skills next year (red)?
How many people are employed in SA’s ICT sector? Our best estimate is 200 000. We have discounted from the MICT SETA numbers the non-IT people employed by IT companies (drivers, secretaries, clerks) and factored in the IT people employed in non-IT companies (47% of respondents). This suggests that the Dept of Communications plan to create 1 million ICT jobs is grossly over-ambitious.
Our estimate of the current demand for new employees in the SA ICT sector fall between 20 000 and 30 000 (i.e. 10% - 15% vacancies).
Our “proof” that there is a strong demand – the number of graduates placed by Microsoft after being specifically skilled to enter the market.
The JCSE’s proposal to create 1 000 jobs in software development by 2015.