SOFT TECH

Soft Tech is a pioneer in IT education with a view to offer a broad portfolio of computer training programs for the corporate as well as the career oriented youth of Swaziland. Our mission is to make Swaziland, an hub for IT talents.

 

Wide Range Courses
	We offers hundreds of IT courses to students, engineers, working people & others. IT career courses for Form 4 Pass/College Students & engineering students, Sun Java, Oracle & Red Hat Linux certification courses as well as short-term courses are offered.
World-Class Education
		We work hard to provide quality education to students. For this, we: Offer hundreds of job-oriented IT courses Provide books & CDs that make it easy to learn Appoint trained & certified teachers to take classes Provide lots of lab time for practice Develop workplace skills in students Work to find good job placements for students
Booming IT Industry
	The IT industry is huge & growing. Through its various job-oriented courses, we fulfill the demand for trained professionals in IT.  But the first step to work in this exciting industry is to know what it is all about, its size, its future, its status in Swaziland & around the world, as well as the job prospects in IT.
Thousands of IT job roles
	Each year, millions of people are employed in the IT industry, most of them new college graduates.  A career in IT means being a part of the most 'happening' industries of our time. There is no area today that is not or will not be touched in some way by IT.  There are hundreds of varieties of job roles in IT.
Job Placements
	We offers job placement assistance to our students. To help students find jobs in the IT industry, We work hard to improve their IT skills as well as workplace & Soft Skills.  Job internships to help students gain hands-on work experience and job fairs to help them find jobs while still on campus are also organized.

Wish to get into IT? Make sure you know the basics. Here’s what IT is all about:

The Information Technology industry is a large industry. Over the past 50 years, IT has shaped the modern world & continues to change it. The major segments in IT are hardware & software. Software consists of products & services. Software products are packaged or ready-to-use software made by a company for use by others. Software services companies typically do programming for client companies on a contract basis. These companies take care of the client company’s ‘outsourced’ development & maintenance of software, training, etc.

IT is a global industry: In 2008, the worldwide spending on IT was estimated to be $2.4 trillion

Software is now an essential part of our lives. Commonly-used software applications (such as electronic bills) are all around us. These help our daily lives function smoothly & also improve productivity of each & every business & organization. Some industries which use IT extensively include banking, finance, insurance & telecom. Some of the commonly used application software in business are database systems, ERP, accounting & payroll, office automation (spreadsheet, word processing), CAD/ CAM, etc.

Software is developed for different devices & ‘platforms’ such as PCs, the Web, mobiles, iPhones & gaming consoles. Software can also be classified as being for home or personal use or for business use. Operating system software, middleware or application software is another commonly-used classification.

Software is written in ‘lines’ of code where each line is a set of logical instructions for the computer. There are many alternative software ‘languages’ in which code can be written e.g. C++, Java, ASP. In early days, in the 1960s, typical programs were small; even a program of 10,000 lines was considered big. Later, longer programs were developed e.g. those developed for NASA’s moon program which ran into a million lines of code. Software programs need to be written, as well as constantly modified & ‘debugged’ (or corrected).

Each year, millions of people are employed in the IT industry, most of them new college graduates.A career in the software industry means being a part of the most ‘happening’ industries of our time. There is no area today that is not or will not be touched in some way by software. If you have an interest in trying or solving challenging problems, IT is a great field to work.

Sibusiso Dlamini has been working in IT & IT-related fields for 6 years now. Currently, he is an Associate Consultant. This is what he feels about a career in IT: 

IT is an in-demand career so there are many opportunities to earn good salaries as compared to other industries. Many opportunities to travel abroad on-the-job or to find jobs anywhere in the world. 

Global outlook/ culture & world-class standards in functioning of most IT companies leads to greater work satisfaction. Also, IT companies are full of enthusiastic people who are fun to work with! 

Technology continues to expand at a rapid pace, providing great opportunities for job growth.

The IT industry is huge & growing. Most IT professionals work in offices in comfortable surroundings. They are mostly employed in IT, telecom, banking & insurance and BPO companies, among others. 

Good IT professionals possess the following skills, among others : 

Logical reasoning ability Numerical ability Imaginative mind Interest in problem-solving Interest in keeping oneself updated about new technology Communication skills, written and oral, is a plus point

Swaziland has huge number of Internet users (as per The Internet Governance forum), huge number of mobile phone users in Swaziland is growing every year. Many global and local companies outsource IT work to South Africa because of South Africa’s highly-skilled,& low costs.

Assist systems analysts in defining requirements of users of the proposed IT system. Create a detailed design for the proposed system. Translate specifications - for a software product or project - given by the systems analyst into lines of code i.e. programs. Modify code to correct errors or to enhance a program’s capabilities. Test programs already developed. Prepare documentation for the program developed & designed.

This is an entry-level IT job. Programmers may also be called software engineers, web developers, etc. depending on the specific job content.

To be successful as a programmer, you need certain professional qualities:

Technical aptitude

• Logical approach to solving problems
• Ability to work independently as well as be a team player
• Good communication skills, written as well as oral, are a plus point
• Willingness to continuously learn since technology keeps changing

Data is core to any IT application. Data professionals make sure that users can access & manage data in a flexible, efficient & secure manner. 

They:

• Analyze & design databases.
• Develope, install & implement databases.
• Perform database administration & maintainance to ensure data integrity.
• Perform database testing.
• Provide data assurance i.e. security of data.