The South African IT industry doesn`t have a skills issue or a skills problem: it has a full-blown skills crisis. And if it doesn`t do something about it quickly, the entire industry will suffer a slow and agonising decline. And that`s the optimistic scenario.

Millions of people wanting jobs. Thousands of jobs wanting people. It sounds like a match made in heaven. It isn`t. The bleak reality of the South African IT industry – and most business sectors in this country, for that matter – is a rapidly dwindling skills pool, where it`s dog-eat-dog in the war for skilled people.