South Africa must drastically increase the numbers of Occupations in High Demand (OIHD) so it can participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), says Higher Education and Training minister Naledi Pandor.

Speaking at the official opening of the National Skills Conference on Thursday (14 March), Pandor said that there are currently 11 universities in the country offering programmes and modules in 4IR and related fields of artificial intelligence and robotics.

Occupations in High Demand are defined as jobs that show relatively strong employment growth and/or are experiencing shortages in the labour market, or which are expected to be in demand in future.

“If we intend to take full advantage of 4IR, all our universities and colleges should be offering such courses,” Pandor said.

She added that as part of its responsibility to identify skills needs in South Africa, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has developed a list of OIHD for a wide range of reasons, mostly to support enrolment planning at universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, as well as macro-planning at national level.

The list of approximately 370 occupations is aimed at helping young people to make informed decisions regarding their subject choices in grade 10, which they can use to make informed choices regarding fields of study for further and higher education.

The list also assists the National Skills Fund (NSF), Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) and other organisations that provide bursaries and scholarships to allocate resources directed to occupations that are in high demand.

The 2018 list of OIHD identified white-collar occupations in information and communications technology, including:

• ICT project manager;
• Data Management manager;
• Application Development manager;
• Information Technology manager;
• Information Systems director;
• ICT systems analyst;
• Software developer;
• ICT risk specialist;
• Programmer analyst;
• Developer programmer;
• Applications programmer.

The list also identified blue-collar occupations requiring an intermediate level of skills as being in demand such as:

• Carpenter;
• Plumber;
• Pipefitter;
• Welder;
• Sheet metal worker.

Source: BusinessTech