Information technology for sustainable development and global competitiveness: comparing curriculum in Africa and America

Abstract

Millennium Development Goals (MDG) stress the importance of education as an effective mean of reducing poverty and building global competitive manpower. The world is viewed as a single marketplace in the acquisition, utilisation and development of IT human resources. The changes in knowledge and skills for effective application of IT make it imperative for institutions in developing countries to prepare skill manpower to meet the challenges. The question examined in this study is the following: Is the Information Technology curriculum offered in Africa capable of producing globally competitive and skilled information technology human resources? The study examines the application of IT for sustainable development and compares information technology curriculum in two countries, one a developing nation, and the other a developed nation. The paper helps to determine the competitiveness of the African IT graduates and suggests how developing nations can produce competitive IT human resources.