Hosted by the Government of South Africa through the Department of Communications and the eSkills Institute, e-Skills Summit South Africa 2010 took place in the Cape Sun Hotel, Cape Town, 26 - 28 July 2010.

The e-Skills Summit South Africa provided a platform to engage government, business and civil society to:

- Raise awareness of current practices and development of e-Skills in South Africa

- Identify solutions to gaps in current institutional and programmatic structures concerning e-Skills development in South Africa and provide a means for all African stakeholders to benefit from this knowledge sharing

- Develop a Collaborative Framework for an initial National e-Skills Plan of Action (NeSPA) for South Africa

The e-Skills Summit 2010 acted as a focal point to establish a commonly owned vision of how to provide South African with the necessary skills to thrive as a member of the global Information Society and contribute to meeting the aims of the South African Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), the Millennium Development Goals and the World Summit on the Information Society Plan of Action.

The e-Skills Summit's Programme combined Visionary and Strategic Plenary Presentations focused on South African Policy for Skills Development and Sharing International Best Practices, Thematic Workshops, and High Level Networking Opportunities.

e-Skills Summit 2010 Key Stakeholders at a National, Regional and International level included: Government Organisations involved in eSkills Development; e-Skills Policy Makers; Corporations committed to e-Skills Development; Higher Education Institutions, Open & Distance Learning Institutions, Technical and Traditional Educational Providers; Researchers, Civil Society and NGOs focused on leveraging and evaluating eSkills.

Presentations can be downloaded as zip files. Please note that each author retains the copyright in relation to their individual paper and/or presentation. Therefore no paper/presentation or part thereof may be reproduced without the written permission of the appropriate author(s).

The Final Programme is published online and can be downloaded in pdf format.

The eSkills Summit was formally opened by Hon. Dina Pule, Deputy Minister, Department of Communications, South Africa.

The eSkills Summit Programme focused around three key pillars identified as priorities for the e-Skills Institute:

- Definition of e-Skills: Conceptual Clarifications

- e-Skills Development Research & Evaluation

- South African MTSF Implementation for e-Skills Development

The e-Skills Summit Programme consisted of Plenary Panel Sessions featuring senior representatives from Government, Education, Business and Civil Society/Labour, Scientific Papers, Case Studies, Technology Snippits and Workshop Sessions, complimented by facilitated Working Groups, who contributing to the initial draft National e-Skills Plan of Action.

Plenary Speakers included:

- Hon. Dina Pule, Deputy Minister, Department of Communications

- Dr Harold Wesso, Acting CEO, e-Skills Institute

- Luci Abrahams, Director, LINK Centre, University of Witwatersrand

- Esam M. Abulkhirat, Senior ICT Policy Officer, Department of Human Resources Science & Technology, African Union Commission

- David Barnard, CEO, SANGONeT

- Peter Benjamin, Director, Cell-Life

- Prof Ramesh Bharuthram, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic, University of the Western Cape

- Dr Cheungmun Cho, National Information Society Agency, Korea

- Prof Robin Crewe, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Pretoria

- Ms Effat El Shooky, Advisor to the Minister, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt

- Boni Gantile, Executive, Learning and Development, Telkom SA Centre for Learning

- Jennie Glennie, Director, SAIDE & Board of Governors, Commonwealth of Learning

- Prof Alwyn Louw, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic & Research, Vaal University of Technology

- Prof Merlyn Mehl, Executive Chairperson, Triple L Academy

- Massimo Migliuolo, Vice President, Emerging Markets, Cisco

- Mansoor Mohamed, Executive Director, Economic, Social Development & Tourism, City of Cape Town

- Joe Mjwara, Group Executive Strategic Relations, Business Connexion

- Prof Bruce Muirhead, Eidos Institute Ltd, Australia

- Prof Maredi Mphahlele, Chair, e-Skills Working Group

- Bhabhali Ka Maphikela (Babsy) Nhlapo, National Skills Development Policy Coordinator, COSATU

- Phumelele Nzimande, Chief People Officer, SABC

- Mark Nolan, Chair, Eidos Institute Ltd, Australia

- Prof Fredrick Otieno, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, Durban University of Technology

- Ramon Peñagaricano, Secretary General, IT4ALL Network, Spain

- Adama Samassekou, Président du CIPSH, Mali

- Prof. Phinda Songca, Executive Dean, Walter Sisulu University & Chair of ResNes Working Group

- Deon van der Merwe, Acting Executive Director ICT, UNISA

- Prof Rex van Olst, School of Electrical & Information Engineering, University of Witwatersrand

- Jenny van Niekerk, CEO, ICDL South Africa

- Raul Zambrano, Chief ICT Advisor, UNDP

The e-Skills Summit commenced with the e-Skills ResNes Inaugural half-day Research Colloquium on Monday morning, which was opened by Dr Harold Wesso, Acting Director-General, Department of Communications and Prof. Phinda Songca, Executive Dean, Walter Sisulu University & Chair of ResNes Working Group.

The first thematic Plenary commenced on Monday afternoon focused on the Definition of e-Skills: Conceptual Clarifications, followed by a Working Group on this theme. A mix of stakeholder case studies was then presented.

Tuesday morning commenced with a Plenary focused on Policy Perspectives of eSkills with a Keynote Address by Hon. Dina Pule, Deputy Minister, Department of Communications, followed by the second thematic Plenary focusing on eSkills Development Research & Evaluation, Working Group for eSkills Development, Research & Evaluation and a reporting back from the first two Working Group sessions. The two parallel workshops focused on a Unified Approach to eSkills Development and Skills Surveys in the ICT sector.

The panel on Wednesday focused on the SA Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) Implementation for eSkills Development, followed by a Working Group Sessions and reporting back of outputs from Pillar 2 and 3.