Acquire new ICT skills in 2017

Robert Ndlovu
IT is not possible to cover all the opportunities that will present themselves in the ICT arena come 2017.

I have hand-picked a few just to whet your appetite. We are almost there. It has been a very busy year with lots of things happening. It is a year when we experienced an exponential growth in the use of social media by individuals and organisations alike.

Services such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Flicker, and Skype amongst others have really re-shaped how people interact. These so-called ‘Over the Top’ services have even forced traditional mobile operators to revise their business models. It became a sink or swim kind of scenario. Mobile operators were faced with an imminent threat to their voice revenues as more and more people prefer to use cheaper IP based instant messaging service and VoIP. The playing ground will never be the same again.

While still on social media we note that there has been so much heated debate on its use and or abuse. Naturally every new technology rocks the boat. Media houses who have been accustomed to shoving news down people’s throats were also affected. Initially some people in different roles of influence have been in denial, thinking that the Facebook and WhatsApp uptake was temporary and passing. If you belong to that league remove the blinds and look at things as they are. Social media is not going anywhere. No amount of legislation or funding can stop it. Instead of wasting time trying to shoot down the moon, it is advisable that you incorporate social media in your strategy. Media houses have responded well to this and adopted reporting models that heavily toy with social media.

The social media related opportunities include but not limited to advertising, content, data mining, analytics, security and many more. The list of sectors affected is endless.

So what has it do with careers and opportunities. Obviously to me at least the demand for social media players will increase. Yes you read that right.

Social media analysts, planners, opinion shapers, viral content pushers and publishers have become an inevitable outcome of this. To that end some institutions now do offer social media courses for individuals and companies face to face and online. These are jobs that did not exist a decade or so ago. Companies want to push and promote their products and services online. And knowing that most people (customers) are always glued on their phones, it is only natural for the companies to push their campaigns to the handsets. Do some googling. Take time off WhatsApp and search for social media courses and training. MIT has free lectures online in text, audio and video format.

There has been a lot of focus and activity on the draft computer crime and Cybercrime Bill in past year. The draft bills have provisions that outline how the police are empowered to seize all forms of gadgets used in carrying out, digitally, anything deemed as a criminal activity. The draft bills will certainly become law in the first quarter of 2017. The laws are massive -from digital evidence collection, storage, movement and preservation.

These new roles mean opportunities in ICT in Zimbabwe as in digital forensics. In simple terms what I mean is that we do not have local people trained in evidence collection or recovering lost data in hard drives or recovered phones. It remains to be seen how the powers that be would be able to overcome the burden of proof associated with digital evidence. Digital data can be manipulated very easily. So it means that skilled personnel are required to test and verify that digital evidence in a criminal case are not tempered with. This is what the forensic analysts do.

Careers in this field include computer forensics, digital forensics, multimedia, mobile device forensics, electronic hardware analysis and troubleshooting and social media searching.

With more and more schools and learning institutions adopting various forms of e-learning no parallel skills development is taking place. I have visited several schools in Bulawayo and under the circumstances they have done pretty well to get broadband connection and computers in a classroom. But usually that is where the story ends. Very few of these schools gainfully use these computers to impart useful knowledge and skills to both students and teachers beyond email, games, social media and word processing. There are several certifications online that equip trainers and anyone for that matter with skills to train school children say game programming.

These are free lessons offered online. The challenges here have to do with lack of information. CODE and Microsoft Education have an outreach programs to train educators in various e-learning areas. Take time and check their sites for this. I could go on with the list of opportunities but the bottom line is that you need to find something unique and something that you will enjoy.

Excel spreadsheet programming pays big dollar in the finance arena. It would be very useful if people especially the youth stopped thinking in terms of looking for a job. That mentality has caused real damage. It would be pretty helpful to pursue careers that can also open avenues into SMEs. Stop thinking like an employee. Acquire skills. Create opportunities. Employ yourself.

You want to know what skill I am acquiring next year if we make it? Drone technology. Yes the drones are here and we do not have operators and controllers yet. Free info, Safe holidays, don’t drink and drive!

@robertndlovu