Information technology skills for the South African public service

Abstract

This article aims to identify those information technology skills expected to be part of a public servant’s professional ways of being. This is done through a survey of the South African government’s policies and plans for information technology and initiatives currently taking place, by categorising the different types of information technology skills needed by public servants, and by assessing the usage of information technology in the private sector. The need for equipping public servants for their profession as public servants is contextualised within the theories regarding professional ways of being and enactivism. Bearing in mind that ICT knowledge and skills are regarded as some of a public servant’s professional ways of being, and that public servants need to learn their professional ways of being through professional academic education programmes, this article recommends that further research be done on how ICT knowledge and skills can be facilitated through the current academic programmes offered to educate public servants.