The world is experiencing the rapid integration of physical, digital and biological technologies, now termed as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR). With this new revolution comes great opportunities as well as concerns regarding such rapid integration in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation, biotechnology and nanotechnology, to name but a few.
In order to deal with the FIR and with the challenges and opportunities it poses, a ministerial task team has been established to advise the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Dr Blade Nzimande, on FIR in post-school education and training.
The eight-member task team was appointed by the former Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Dr Naledi Pandor, which was one of her final official stints in that portfolio before she was reshuffled to her new post as Minister of International Affairs and Co-Operation.
Making the task team list is the Durban University of Technology’s (DUT’s) Dr Surendra (Colin) Thakur, who holds the BankSeta Research Chair in Digitalisation. Dr Thakur is also the Director of the NEMISA KZN e-Skills CoLab which is tasked with e-skills in general, and particularly on the e-enablement of government services for effective service delivery, with a focus on e-democracy and e-participation. He has also conceptualised and introduced InvoTech, an innovation incubator at DUT, where one of his patents is being registered. Dr Thakur is also an international E-Voting expert, emerging expert in Social Media and national authority on Big Data.
When asked on how he feels on being selected to be part of the task team, he said he considered the appointment to be an honour and a privilege. “It is an affirmation that the technology advocacy work that I do is aligned with national priorities. We at DUT along with the IT department are already preparing 200 KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) educators for Internet of Things, through a skills transfer that is matched with an innovative resource and technology transfer. This is a massive honour for me as part of DUT. It shows that DUT is relevant and an active member within the technology space. The hard work begins,” he said.
Speaking more on his role as part of the task team, Dr Thakur added that he will await the direction of the Minister with regards to each persons’ specific roles and time-frames.
“4IR is characterised by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological sphere often collectively called cyber-physical systems,” he said. Dr Thakur added that the challenge of 4IR is that the rate of technology is proceeding at a rate that is beyond one’s ability to comprehend. 4IR will have some dire consequences unless and until everyone changes the way they think and function.
“Consider that two major banks, a telecommunications company and Neotel will respectively lose over 1200 employees, 800 and 500 skilled employees. What do we do with these skills? How do we repurpose or cross train these folk? Can we proactively anticipate such changes in other verticals? On the other hand, 4IR will demand a new kind of critical and creative thinking and create new jobs in Data Science, Robotics, Cloud Computing, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence (AI). It’s about ICT, but also about interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary modes. This opportunity is to repurpose our skills,” he said.
According to the Government Gazette published in June 2019, the task team is expected to identify current 4IR initiatives in institutions in the PSET system as well as external initiatives impacting on the PSET system; analyse the impact of 4IR on the PSET system; identify priority areas and interventions that should be taken by the Minister of Higher Education and Training in order to advance digital skills and absorption by industry.
The team has been given until January 2020 to submit its report to the Minister on their findings.
Pictured: Dr Surendra (Colin) Thakur.
Waheeda Peters
