With South Africa facing an IT skills shortage crunch, with businesses opting to hire from a limited pool of experienced developers or outsource their development needs to remote developers internationally at high costs, an innovative model of skills-integration-as-a-service (SIaaS) in the software development industry is busy shaping up to redefine how companies can on-board junior staff – without draining their resources.
Jessica Hawkey, MD of the innovative and experiential learning hub redAcademy, says 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, that included some of the most recognisable brands in the country, spanning retail, financial services and more, where the number one concern remains the time, effort and loss of productivity associated with onboarding entry-level software developers.
Impacting the Skills Shortage Smartly
“We knew from the outset that if we are 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.
Businesses are concerned that this is not a quick process and that it eats into the capacity of senior resources who are not as productive as a result. This is why businesses are opting to hire more seasoned developers, even at a higher cost,” explains Hawkey.
Hawkey says that in order to address this, redAcademy has approached integrating skilled entry-level software developers into a managed business service.
“SIaaS is designed to remove the number one obstacle to placing skilled young people in businesses. And, as a managed service, redAcademy handles every step of the integration, significantly reducing the time and effort and costs that businesses need to invest themselves.
We achieve this by customising year-long training inside the client’s live working environment. Six months of this is dedicated to their real-world software delivery. All of this is overseen within the redAcademy team.”
Businesses Focus on Delivering Value – Not Training
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.”
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 was turned inwards – the impact on the local economy would be profound.
No More Staff Retention Issues
In addition to this, circulating the same mid-level or senior developer’s increases costs and with heightened competition for talent, businesses invest in on-boarding new staff only to lose the talent to another business with more budget. This is unsustainable as the skills gap is just getting bigger and unemployment is just getting worse. There isn’t an endless runway and as a country we need to do something before we get to the cliff.
“Make no mistake, the government and many other stakeholders understand the magnitude of the problem, with 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,” explains Hawkey.
“Adding SIaaS into the country’s toolkit provides a compelling business case to make a difference because companies can secure their future IT talent needs while simultaneously contributing positively to the country.”
