Enterprise automation software company UiPath has collaborated with the Media, Information and Communication Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority (MICT SETA) in South Africa to develop the first national qualification in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
The initiative aims to provide the workforce of the future with valuable tech skills and would potentially have a positive impact on youth unemployment by creating new jobs in software development, setting up for further growth the expanding automation ecosystem in South Africa.
Mark Gibbs, president, Europe, Middle East and Africa at UiPath, said South Africa has seen the emergence of a strong automation ecosystem, which includes forward-thinking enterprises that have made intelligent automation a priority, automation services providers, and universities who teach their students automation skills to prepare them for the workplace of the future.
“Automation adoption has led to the creation of new roles. However, the need for qualified automation talent is acute. This qualification is set to provide companies with the next generation of talented RPA developers and help narrow the current skills gap in the country,” Gibbs said.
Recent research points to skills shortages being among the most significant business risks facing South African organisations.
According to the 2022 JCSE-lITPSA Skills Survey, RPA skills were among those recording “significant shortages”, alongside information security, big data design and analytics, and artificial intelligence, for which demand exceeds supply by a big margin.
For this reason, the introduction of the national qualification in RPA was said to be well positioned to help address the current shortage of RPA skills in South Africa. It would empower workers with the skills needed to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the field of automation, which was becoming ubiquitous across industries.
With unemployment among South Africa’s youth a pressing issue, the development of a standardised qualification in RPA would provide a clear and defined career pathway for individuals interested in this field, ultimately delivering a positive contribution to the local economy.
According to MICT SETA, the national qualification in RPA would prepare young professionals and the current workforce to deal with the disruptive effects of new technologies. The qualification would also enable young professionals to innovate and create new products and services across industries.
MICT SETA CEO Matome Madibana said they were hopeful that, by means of this qualification, the country would bridge the current shortage of skilled labour within the ICT and digital industries and ultimately, increase the youth employment rate in South Africa.
“It is important for all stakeholders to come together and ensure South Africa will have people with the skills to innovate and exploit Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. Perhaps, most importantly, it will provide those whose jobs face redundancy to be reskilled,” Madibana said.
Certified RPA Developers would be able to create RPA solutions that emulated human actions during the project development stage using platform knowledge and data analysis capabilities. They would also be able to execute test procedures and modify and improve existing RPA solutions with the skills required to build reusable components.
This was said to align with the findings of the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) by providing people with the opportunity to further their skills and benefit from employment opportunities in a talent-strapped technology industry.
Gregory Williams, the regional vice-president in South Africa at UiPath, said the introduction of this qualification was an important milestone for the software automation industry with ripple effects on the business landscape in South Africa.
“As automation is increasingly becoming a priority for businesses in the region, the initiative will deliver consistency in providing aspiring RPA developers with the skills and knowledge required for the role,” Williams said.
Mo Kola, CTO of Business Solutions at TFG, said that within the Foschini Retail Group one of the top performers throughout their three-year automation journey was their finance function, where the automated processes were in double digits, amounting to a return on investment of 242% over a period of 18 months.
"As we look to scale our automation deployment within the enterprise, we welcome the introduction of the national qualification for RPA developers in South Africa as a valuable step towards creating a highly qualified workforce of the future, which can both drive and benefit from enterprise automation,” Kola said.
Ugan Maistry, CEO at FIRtech, said technological innovation advances through disruption, bringing about both opportunities and challenges.
"However, the flip side of technological disruption is technological absorption. How are we going to mitigate skills churn and the skills mismatch through re-skilling and upskilling?
“The NQF-accredited RPA programme does exactly this for the South African economy. It gives displaced employees and unemployed youth an opportunity to learn skills that are in demand. Further, being a recognised qualification means that it builds on the individual's educational achievements,” Maistry said.
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