Skills Training & Development
The biggest obstacle to closing the skills gap and getting more young people into IT careers is the perception that onboarding them burdens businesses by negatively impacting productivity and draining resources. This understanding was reinforced by a recent survey conducted by redAcademy – which included some of the most recognisable brands in the country in retail and financial services, among others – where the number one concern was the time, effort and loss of productivity associated with onboarding entry-level software developers.
“ We knew from the outset that if we were to make any meaningful impact on the skills shortage, we needed to find a solution to this problem. Since day one, and backed up by our recent survey, it became clear that graduates with classic qualifications require significant investment to get them up to par with ways of working, and to be a cultural fit with the organisation they are entering,” says redAcademy MD, Jessica Hawkey.
Businesses are concerned that this is not a quick process and that it eats into the capacity of senior personnel, who are not as productive as a result. This is why they are opting to hire more seasoned developers, even at a higher cost,” explains Hawkey.
In order to address this, she says, redAcademy offers integrating skilled entry-level software developers into businesses as a managed service.“ SIaaS is designed to remove the number one obstacle to placing skilled young people in businesses, so, redAcademy handles every step of the integration, significantly reducing the time and effort businesses need to invest themselves. We achieve this by customising year-long training inside the client’ s live working environment. Of this, six months are dedicated to their realworld software delivery. And all of this is overseen by the redAcademy team.”
The result is that businesses can focus on delivering value to their customers, while redAcademy’ s senior software development professionals come in and manage the entire integration process, explains Hawkey.“ This changes everything, because now, instead of having to invest time and money just to get a young person to be able to start adding value, the skilled developer starts day one of his or her employment fully immersed in the business culture and live projects, already integrated with the existing teams.”
Making a dent in the IT skills shortage
The SIaaS model tackles one of the top pain points for South African companies: the costs in both time and productivity required to train junior staff. Hawkey sees this as a gamechanger, especially in a country spending millions on offshore talent. Hawkey says that the managed service model, at scale, will make a dent in the IT skills shortage.“ As a country we spend inordinate amounts of money outsourcing every year. Imagine that money turned inwards – the impact on the local economy would be profound. In addition to this, circulating the same mid-level or senior developers increases costs, and with heightened competition for talent, businesses invest in onboarding new staff only to lose the talent to another business with a larger budget. This is unsustainable, as the skills gap is just widening and unemployment levels are off the charts. There isn’ t an endless runway, and as a country, we need to do something before we get to the cliff.
“ Make no mistake,” Hawkey continues,“ the government and many other stakeholders understand the magnitude of the problem, [ and have made ] a host of important interventions. Now, businesses can enjoy SIaaS through their skills development spend as it is an accredited programme, meaning this comes at no additional cost to the IT department, who gain access to custom-trained and experienced talent.
“ Adding SIaaS into the country’ s toolkit provides a compelling case for business to make a difference, because companies can secure their future IT talent needs while simultaneously contributing positively to the country.” www. futuresa. co. za 85