ICT: performance evaluation of community development worker’s in South Africa on e-skills

Community development service practitioners have been increasingly burdened with a broader range of responsibilities and ICT could enhance their productivity. Therefore, it is prudent to incorporate information communication technology (ICT) skills into the skills matrix required by the practitioners in order to deliver the service effectively. Furthermore, ICT use is prevalent in almost every organization, therefore, ICT can also serve as a major factor in flexibility of delivery of community development service to the communities, but only if the practitioners possess adequate skills in using ICT tools (software applications) in retrieving, presenting and disseminating valuable and adequate information within the workplace to the parties involved. The study determines the current work conditions, level of performance and expertise in the use of ICT among community development workers (CDWs) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, by evaluating their abilities and experiences, with a view to identify the areas to enhance their effectiveness. Determining the competency of their use of ICT applications is not an easy task; thus a survey methodology was adopted, with a sample of 189 CDWs (63% female and 37% male). Respondents were given the opportunity to rate of their own current ability to use common computer software applications.