Singaporean tech leaders raising concerns regarding to the need for education providers in the country to improve their training services to meet increasing demand for IT professionals in the future.

According to a recent independent survey conducted by Robert Half, more than half CIOs (53 percent) participated in the study believe that the city-state’s educational institutions should focus more on IT security to meet the demands of the IT employment market. Besides digital security, other key areas that need attention including business analysis (39 percent), data or database management (36 percent), digitisation (32 percent), and software or application development (27 percent).

Commented on these findings, Managing Director at Robert Half Singapore, Mr Matthieu Imbert-Bouchard said that educators need to ensure their STEM qualifications, courses and degrees evolve at the same pace as technology does. These variables will play a vital role in securing a continuous flow of skilled IT professionals into the employment market, as well as upskilling working professionals in new technologies, processes, and programs that can greatly benefit any business.

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The survey also suggested that Singapore is facing an ongoing skills shortage within technology sector, with more than nine in ten, or staggering 92 percent, CIOs saying that today it becomes more challenging to find qualified IT professionals compared to five years ago. This challenge is expected to become much more apparent in the next few years. Among the top functional are within the IT industry predicted to see rapid growth in job opportunities are IT security (64 percent), data or database management (48 percent) and software or application development (47 percent).

Mr Imbert-Bouchard stated that rapid acceleration pace of technological advancement should be balanced with the development of IT skillsets too. Not only new IT talents who are entering the employment market need to master necessary skills to manage future technologies, on the other hand companies also need to ensure that their current staff are continuously updating their skillsets to keep pace with changing technological trends. In such context, education providers play a highly integral role to be the enabler of good and effective learning process.

“To help close the current and future technology skills gap, a comprehensive approach is needed with educational institutions working alongside the business community and government to ensure a continuous and sufficient influx of qualified IT talent, and adequately ‘market’ the benefits and opportunities available with a career in IT and technology,” concluded Mr Imbert-Bouchard.

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