THE ICT CHARTER

5.4. Skills Development
Overview
According to a recent report (published in February 2004), South
Africa’s position in the human development index has dropped from
94 th to 107 th place in 2002 despite an aggressive national skills
development policy through the Skills Development Act and other
legislation 6 .
The same report states that only 29 percent of the African 7 (that is,
excluding “Indian” and “Coloured”) school-leavers are able to secure
jobs despite a shortage of skills. In the same report, it is stated that
South Africa occupies almost all the last positions in indices that had to
do with science and technology capacity.
It is generally agreed that there exists no coherent implementation of
a national ICT skills development strategy. Only 21 percent of the skills
development levy paying companies had grant disbursement
reimbursed to them for the implementation of training programs. This
number drops even further to 7 percent for the small levy-paying
employers 8 .
The development of skills in the ICT sector is identified as one of the
major catalysts for transformation in the sector. Currently, the
overwhelming majority of semi-skilled and non-skilled positions are
occupied by blacks whereas whites occupy most highly-skilled and
specialist positions in the sector.
Objectives
The main objectives of this Charter as it pertains to this indicator are
to:-
• promote and support the aims and objectives of the Skills
Development Act as well as the ISETT SETA, MAPPP SETA and
other relevant bodies;
6 Budlender, D. 2004 International Benchmarks, Human Resource Development Review, Chapter 11, HSRC
7 Kraak, A. 2004 HRD and the Skills Crisis, Human Resource Development Review, Chapter 28, HSRC
8 Kraak, A. 2004 HRD and the Skills Crisis, Human Resource Development Review, Chapter 28, HSRC
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