Developing national e-skills in Uganda: Lessons learnt from Korea and South Africa

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become an essential element of sustainable economic development of nations and the hope for the developing countries to leap frog into developed nations. In order for a nation to realize these benefits however, it will need implement and use the technology - usage requires skills. These skills are commonly referred to as e-skills, which are defined as Information and Communications Technology Capability. Uganda has implemented technology but the level of usage is low, causing a limited impact of ICT industry on the nation’s economy. This calls therefore, for the development of the, thus goal of this research is to suggest strategies that Uganda can employ on its journey towards a national with advanced e-skills. This paper uses International Telecommunications Union’s ICT Development Index - Skills sub-index to show the skills gap between Uganda and two benchmarking countries (Korea and South Africa). An analysis of the e-skills development strategies of Korea and South Africa is done and these are applied in Uganda’s environment. The results of this analysis show that there is a very big gap between Uganda and these two countries. Uganda can pick a leaf from then and implement national e-skill for economic development as well as for improving the standards of living of Uganda’s citizens. Secondary sources of data were used but they were reliable and rich with content. Further studies can be done to analyze e-skills development at individual and organizational levels.

Keywords: e-skills development, e-literacy, digital literacy, Uganda and e-skills, Uganda