Johannesburg — A local non-profit organisation, the Peoples' Information and Communication Technology Engineering Academy (PICTEA), is launching two new ICT engineering academies aimed at developing future engineers within the ICT field.

The project, which was officially launched at the Ekurhuleni East Technical College in Brakpan yesterday, will help previously disadvantaged students.

"We will train 400 students for the Gauteng region and 200 students in KwaZulu-Natal," says Dennis Memela, co-ordinator of the ICT Engineer Academy Project. "The training programme will commence in January 2005, and will follow international trends, especially those used in India, China and Japan. More than 10 local ICT companies are also involved with the project."

The training programme will be conducted at the Ekurhuleni East Technical College in Brakpan and the University of Zululand. Students will have to pay a R500 monthly fee, but PICTEA hopes to get financial institutions to supply bursaries, loans and scholarships for those who can't afford this fee.

The project consists of four fields of study: telecommunication engineering, electronics engineering, electrical engineering and information technology engineering.

Students participating in the ICT engineering programme will be accredited with a three-year Further Education and Training Diploma. The second level of study will be a three-year B-Tech level, which aims to encourage students to work in the research field. The third level of study is the Masters level, which will involve a high level of specialisation.

Memela says the training programme is proving so popular that the student registration list already exceeds the number of students that can be accommodated.

He acknowledges that there are already several ICT training programmes in the country, but says still more are needed.

"There is still a shortage of black people in the ICT field and this project will assist in the transformation of the ICT industry in SA. We are not like other projects that wait for students to pass their Matric and only then help them in this career. It is a total waste of time, since 3% of the students actually pass Maths and Science."

The initial training on the Further Education and Training Diploma requires a Grade Nine pass.