FINAL WORD
Highly skilled and capable staff are in
high demand. However, your ability
to retain them is dependent on the
opportunities you provide them for
growth, the right incentives and the
right motivation.
F
or years, organisations in the
Middle East have struggled to close
the sizable gap between the talent
needed to help keep businesses
growing, and the skills available
in the market. While the obvious skills gap
affects almost every industry segment, the IT
industry particularly has a severe shortage of
highly skilled professionals.
New and disruptive technologies have
flooded the IT landscape over the years,
and organisations have readily adopted
technologies like Artificial intelligence
and Machine Learning to boost business
and individual productivity. However, IT
professionals have struggled to keep abreast
of the changes and update their skills to
meet the growing demand for specific skill
sets. The struggle is real for businesses
looking for specialised talent.
The state of IT skills today
When I look at the state of the IT skills gaps in
the region from a channel perspective, I see
significant room for the development of niche
technology skills. Skills in the areas of security
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
Issue 18
and networking are currently in strong
demand. However, with the rapid uptake of
GDPR, cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence
and Machine Learning, it has now become
important for IT personnel to possess skills
specific to these technologies, as well mobile
app development and data science skills.
This skills gap, however, varies across
the region, depending on skillset available
and specific business needs, and technology
adoption. Business leaders have set high
business goals and expectations, and
Information Technology skills play a vital
role in fulfilling the business goals and
objectives. While there is an abundance
of basic IT skills, advanced skills required
to deal with emerging and complex
technologies remains scarce.
I strongly believe that channel
stakeholders need to be committed to
investing in timely training and certification
programmes to ensure resources possess
the necessary skills to carry out complex
implementations or provide expert advice
and guidance to customers. However, there
are barriers.
Overcoming the two major barriers
of cost and time availability are crucial to
allow partners to be trained and update
their skills. Amid the current skills shortage,
it is important to note that the number of
implementations can place undue pressure
on partners to meet customer demands. As
profitability is at risk, partners tend to focus
on the task at hand.
The role we play in helping close
the skills gap
More needs to be done in order to tackle the
IT skills shortage. Initiatives like providing
flexibility for partners to take training
at their convenience, provide free online
courses to update skills, providing incentives
to partners who upgrade and maintain their
certifications are some ways to encourage
partners to invest in training. Small steps will
eventually contribute towards minimising
the skills gap.
FVC is committed towards intellectual
empowerment of our internal staff, partners
and customers, with next generation
technology that delivers results for them
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