Botswana has a very small IT workforce. A CSO labor survey from 1996 put the total size of the workforce in the country at about one half of one percent of the working population. Of that, only 25% was female. However, Botswana has an English speaking population with an illiteracy rate of about 22.76%(4).

IT Education and Technology Skill Development

There is a strong focus on developing an information society in the country. The "Revised National Policy on Education", the major initiative aimed at helping develop an " educated and informed nation" seeks to ensure that education is not denied to needy children. A strong focus is placed on tertiary eduction, with proposals to increase enrollment at the University of Botswana, and starting a second university (1). This is a development plan expected to cost between P3.7Million over the whole of the NDP 9 period.

Some of the education institutions in Botswana include:

• Botswana Accountancy College
• Botswana Institute of Diplomacy and Commerce
• National Institute of Information Technology
  • offers diplomas and certificates in computing studies
• The University of Botswana
  • 2 yr diplomas in computing studies
  • 4 yr degree in Computer Science

The University of Botswana is the most advanced institution in the country with 6 faculties: business, education, engineering and technology, humanities, science and social science (3).

The chart(s) below(3) shows student enrolment counts by level of program. There has been a large increase in recent years in undergraduate student enrollment, a sign of a better educated workforce.

Actual outputs of students has been growing as illustrated below

Finally, the enrollment by programme indicates a steady increase in the number of students going into science and engineering programmes, a sign of healthy growth in the number of IT workers that will be available in Botswana in the future.