Many have seen the technological revolution as a threat to job security, however, Gugu Goodness Sema, head of 4IR at South Africa’s Media, Information and Community Technology (MICT) SETA (Sector Education and Training Authority) says, “for an economy to benefit from these changes, as opposed to suffer the consequences of the much predicted mass-unemployment that this revolution will hail, there needs to be a 4IR ready workforce.”
With the presidential commission stepping in, developing a policy to address 4IR across various sectors including agriculture, finance, mining, manufacturing, ICT and electronics and business.
Sema also acknowledged that, there is still a gap in terms of understanding what the 4IR entails, proposing that some of the essential points around 4IR need to be clarified and how the needs of the 4IR future will be embraced and pro-actively addressed.
The MICT SETA is also said to have a 4IR divsion and advisory committees with four stream areas of focus which include education, research, policy and labour, aimed at contributing towards Presidential 4IR Commission programmes.
The division aims to ensure alignment with other institutions such as SETAs, academia, public funded research institutions, labour and community on 4IR policy and implementation.
“The opportunity to create a 4IR ready country and workforce will take an immense amount of resources – but fortunately the process has already begun and as we head into 2020 will accelerate into high gear,” Sema added.
