South Africa, one of the youngest democracies in the world, is notorious for change. South Africa as a nation has gone through a lot of change over the last 30 years and is slowly catching up to the global changes taking place. With Industry 4.0 on the horizon, the requirement for a digital component in most jobs will begin to increase. Employees now have the responsibility to future-proof their careers by improving their skill sets to include an understanding of AI, Machine Learning, Blockchain, Drone tech, and the Internet of Things. How will this impact the future workforce? And is the future workforce prepared and ready for this change?
The South African government has identified this as a necessity: In a statement by the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga said, “To create sustainable industrialisation and keep pace with the world, South Africa is developing coding as well as robotics curricula to be included in the GET (General Education and Training) from Grade R-9.” The fact that the government has identified this as an important focus in the development of school children, means they have researched what the future workforce will look like. This future workforce will require access to institutions that provide the necessary courses to fill future job roles created by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as well as in the related fields of AI and robotics.
The University of South Africa, UNISA, one of the largest tertiary institutions in South Africa, is helping by providing 24 of their ICT laboratories throughout the country to train 72,000 teachers in coding. Other tertiary institutions have answered the call for degree programmes to be modified to meet these demands. The University of Pretoria, one of the top research institutions in Africa, includes Industry 4.0 into their subjects. Courses include AI, programming, strategic business, and computer engineering. Some of their degree programmes also include new future transportation and sustainable smart cities infrastructure. Their world-leading Big Data and Data Science Institute is another facility on offer to meet the future technological demands of the working world. The institute’s focus is on data analytics and the development of new and efficient machine learning, as well as statistical learning approaches. Initiatives like this will help shape and prepare the workforce of the future.
The 2018 list of occupations in high demand in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector includes ICT project manager; data management manager; application development manager; IT manager; information systems director; ICT systems analyst; software developer; ICT risk specialist; programmer analyst; developer programmer, and applications programmer. By incorporating MICROMINE software solutions into your operation, you are giving employees the chance to utilise and train on an industry leading software solution like, Micromine, Geobank or Pitram, therefore better equipping your operation and employees to run more efficiently.
This paints an obvious picture, and comparing a country like China with South Africa, South Africa is way behind on developing these technological skills. The foundations are beginning to be laid, and South Africa is taking the right steps to achieve a technologically skilled workforce to match future industry demand.
