eSkills Malta Foundation launches The ICT Skills Demand and Supply Monitor 2021

• August 5, 2021
• admin

The eSkills Malta Foundation has formally launched the ICT Skills Demand and Supply Monitor Report 2021. Hon. Minister Silvio Schembri, Minister for the Economy and Industry launched this report on the 22nd of July during an event held at the Phoenicia Hotel. The eSkills Malta Foundation collaborated with Ernst and Young to carry out this study.

The ICT Skills Demand and Supply Monitor 2021 is crucial to the ICT Industry, including the government sector and the ICT departments and units in the other industry sectors. The – report gathers specific information from the ICT industry, education and training establishments, and government so that it identifies specific skills and policy gaps which the various stakeholders can address.

The ICT Skills Demand and Supply Monitor 2021 gives a good insight into the current position of the demand organisations (ICT companies, CIO offices, ICT departments and Units) and the supply organisations (universities, colleges, training companies), and also that from the individual ICT professionals. The study used the European e-Competence Framework as a base for potential competencies required in the ICT sector, thus giving it a European context. It must be noted that the study reflects on the feedback acquired and indicates the direction that this buoyant industry should consider reducing the competence gaps.

The ICT Industry specifically depends on highly skilled resources, which depends on the upskilling and reskilling of the human capital with the right competencies. In turn, this will foster the right professionalism and higher company performance.

The biggest challenges currently faced mainly revolve around human resources and continuous development, with a scarcity of ICT professionals in relation to market demand, and existing ICT professionals lacking required learning and development opportunities, such as training and certification. The current demand cannot be met solely by relying on the local tertiary education pipeline. The number of ICT students is not growing proportionally to the demand, in the shorter term we need to look onward to potential resources stemming from the much wider international talent pool. It is thus highly recommended that Malta’s ICT market appeal be highlighted and given more international exposure, as well as be potentially enhanced by exploring and pursuing initiatives that have proven to be successful on the international stage.

Enabling and streamlining key stakeholder communication across the field is essential in ensuring the market can evolve homogenously and in line with international trends, and a more centralised approach is highly recommended. While this study sheds light on several developments and provides context for some key considerations, an ongoing dialogue between key stakeholders needs to be facilitated by centralising communication through a national platform.

The progress made on the Maltese ICT market across all dimensions over the past decade sets a precedent that sorely needs to be succeeded by a pro-active approach to the market’s continuous development in order to realise its existing potential and accelerate the path to growth and evolution.

This report was compiled and structured to reflect the overarching dimensions and implications of the responses with a view to formulate recommendations that address the challenges faced by all relevant stakeholders while attempting to stay impartial to subjective individual challenges.

You can download the ICT Skills Demand and Supply Monitor 2021 from the link below.

https://eskills.org.mt/en/demandsupplymonitor/Documents/ICT_Demand_Supply_Monitor_2021.pdf​

The eSkills Malta Foundation is planning to carry out workshops with stakeholders to foster further activity.