South African companies that are committed to broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) need to step up their efforts around skills development and employment equity.

That’s the word from Michael Jacobus, chief executive officer at AL Indigo.

He says that most ICT companies have focused on the low hanging fruit of BBBEE in the form of corporate social investment and shareholding, neglecting equally important areas that need more concerted, longer term effort in the process.

“Many ICT groups have targeted areas of the BEE scorecard that are easier to address – such as corporate social investment, preferential procurement, and equity shareholding – and have neglected employment equity and skills development,” Jacobus says.

“The reason for this is that we have all focused on chasing BEE accreditation and have not paid enough attention to grassroots empowerment. But transformation at the lower levels of the industry is critical to sustainability and long-term growth.”

AL Indigo is currently accredited as a Level 4 contributor to BEE and is a 100%-black-owned company. The company has made significant progress on areas of BBBEE such as the demographic make-up of its management team, corporate social investment and preferential procurement.

But Jacobus says that it recognises that employment equity and skills development now need to take centre stage in its BBBEE strategy, especially as the company aims to increase its accredited rating in the years to come.

“Looking to the future, we want to step up our investments into training and skills development to create a sustainable pool of technology skills for the future as well as to help bring more people from previously disadvantaged communities into the ICT industry,” Jacobus adds.

In addition, government is getting impatient with slow progress in employment equity across most sectors. To avoid further regulation, the industry needs to accelerate transformation of the workplace; AL Indigo is embarking on a range of training and development programmes that address ICT skills at every level – from entry-level qualifications through to high-level technical training and management skills.

These programmes include bursary programmes for students, Learnership programmes, on-the-job-training for new entrants into the ICT job market, and support from staff that want to build their skills through formal educational programmes. The goal is to develop a strong base of entry- and mid-level skills, and grow them into the top managers and technicians of tomorrow.

“The major challenge that we face as we roll out our skills development and employment equity programme is retaining the skills because previously disadvantaged candidates with rare, high-level technology skills are in such high demand.

“But we have put a strategy in place to attract, develop and retain the people that we need to grow our business into the future. South Africa’s ICT industry as a whole needs a larger skills base to grow, so it is in the entire industry’s interest to grow the pool of professionals through skills development programmes” , Jacobus concludes.