Philip Argy challenges companies to prepare for the future.
Opinion: Foresight equals growth
Philip Argy challenges companies to prepare for the future.
Those concerned about the growing impact of the global ICT skills shortage have had plenty of ammunition in recent months, with reports of record demand for skilled workers in Australia further reinforced by greater shortages in the US, UK and across Europe.
Observers say declining interest in ICT degree courses in recent years, coupled by a decisive turnaround in business and government requirements for ICT professionals, has exacerbated the situation.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the total pool of students enrolled in Information Technology Bachelor degree courses dropped 24 per cent from 57,300 in 2002 to 43,700 in 2005.
While some universities have reported an increase in applications this year, it will take three years for increased enrolments to translate into a larger pipeline of graduates to help meet industry needs.
And even if numbers continue to increase, there is no guarantee that students will graduate with the skills that employers actually need, as evidenced by this year’s swell of enthusiasm for degrees in games development, an area of only limited employment opportunity.
The ACS is calling for greater focus on skills foresighting to help identify areas of predicted future demand as well as future troughs, to help students make more informed choices.
Even though many companies prepare a 3-5 year corporate plan encompassing their strategic direction and vision, their projected revenues and all the things that flow from that, I’m yet to see one that has a single sentence, let alone a page, devoted to the human resources and skill sets the organisation will need to achieve its goals.
I believe the current shortages affecting the ICT sector highlight the need for greater skills planning.
I am proposing a process in which the Government canvasses Australian employers for detailed information about their future skills needs, and then develops public forecasts about projected demand for those skills.
This approach would require companies to not only consider what skills they will need in the coming 3-5 years, but also how they will obtain them and their various options for training and investing in staff.
Rather than simply going to the market for skills which are increasingly in short supply, employers might choose to work with universities and even high schools to develop courses to deliver the skill sets they will need in the future.
This would give students greater clarity about their future employment prospects when choosing a course of study and help create sufficient interest in areas of predicted shortage to help meet the shortfall.
The ACS wants all HR specialists in every Australian company to be given a formal skills foresighting role and to be required to contribute to the corporate three to five year plan on what skill sets are needed and how they will be obtained.
A more considered approach would also provide greater opportunities to identify roles in which women might excel, such as those involving skills in multitasking, project management, communication and collaboration, where women have clear strengths.
By targeting women for such roles, and highlighting the predicted growth potential, it should be possible to attract more women into the ICT sector and head off some predicted shortages.
The issue of women in ICT is currently gaining increased airplay in Australia and overseas, as industry stakeholders reinforce the fact that low female participation rates are compounding the skills issue.
When the ACS released its Work Life Balance Policy in 2005, addressing the needs of women was a major theme, with a range of proposals aimed at improving job flexibility for working mothers. These issues were also highlighted in our Uncollared Workforce Policy released in 2006.
The European Economic Union is predicting a shortage of 300,000 ICT professionals by 2010. With the number of women working in ICT varying from 41 per cent of ICT professionals in Lithuania down to as low as six per cent in Luxembourg, there is considerable discussion about ways to encourage greater gender balance.
Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, recently told a meeting in Brussels that getting more women into ICT careers would be a force for change and a major boost for this key economic sector in Europe.
“With Europe facing a skills shortage in this sector, we must encourage more women to study ICT subjects and to take up a career in this field, so as to increase capacity of the workforce and to tap into women’s creative potential,” she said.
In Australia, the female participation rate is believed to be around 20 per cent, although some estimates have put it as low as 17 per cent.
Certainly, if more women could be enticed into the ICT sector and encouraged to equip themselves with in-demand skills, we would be far better placed when it comes to meeting the growing needs of industry and commerce.
Philip Argy is National President of the Australian Computer Society.