eCommerce: Education & the Labour Market 2003

One of the challenges being faced by the local Information Technology Industry is the increasing migration of specialists; leaving for other countries which offer better remuneration and advanced Infrastructures. The following are some of the recreation by players and educationists:

a) The Computer Society of Zimbabwe introduced the International Computer Driving License (ICDL), which has taken the market by storm. This course makes it easier for anyone to find an Information Technology related job.
b) The Harare Polytechnic (rep of HEXCO) Computer Studies Department has embarked on a campaign to introduce degrees in the next few years to come. The major assistance is from Asian educational and industrial players.
c) Occupational training facilities have increased in the past decade. These have majored in products from world leading vendors like Microsoft, Sun, Cisco, CompTIA, Compaq, Caldera and Dell.
d) Institutes like SIRDC and AVU (African Virtual University) have introduced courses, which are only accessible to a few privileged Information Technology professionals.
e) The Ministries of Education have lagged behind in Information Technology education, with most secondary schools not even having any form of Information Technology curriculum – further straining future developments.

These moves have resulted in a lot of negative factors, further contributing to what they fear – specialists’ migration.
The following are some of the effects of the above moves:
a) An influx of Product Specialist as compared to Technology Specialists. This has caused the specialists to migrate to places like USA, where these products have ready employment opportunities.
b) Lack of specialisation in Technologies has resulted in the production of maintenance managers, support engineers, and re-engineering developers.
c) There is an expertise gap caused by the inaccessibility of specialised education and occupational training; thus also resulting in them migrating.
d) There are abortions and suppressions of visions and talent from students owing to the lack of policies and structures guaranteeing Information Technology education at critical schooling levels (Secondary and Tertiary).
e) Lack of effective Information Technology Communities – other than the Computer Society of Zimbabwe – to spearhead the industry, which is too vast to be covered by one body.

In short, technically, we have a lot of novices, a small amount of outward-bound experts, and no effective production of innovative patriots.