Canada faces looming shortage of IT workers

Shortage of skilled IT workforce---So, it is not far when there could be more jobs than available workers in the ICT(information and communications technology) sector in Canada.

The report released by the ICTC (Information and Communications Technology Association) based in Ottawa, almost all provinces of Canada will be feeling the IT workers crunch. The ICTC drives attention on the looming shortage of tech workers in Canada.

People not possessing desired skills--Another fact brought out by the report is that Canada is not just facing scarcity of required IT workforce but the available workers in Canada do not possess the appropriate skill-sets. Employers in Canada are in need of technical skills along with an ability for understanding their firms’ businesses including operations and marketing.

Canada job market undergoing dynamic changes—Job market in Canada is passing through several changes and the changes are particularly noticeable in the required skill-sets, states ICTC.

Jobs for fresh graduates of co-op programs—Canada will be having many jobs for recent graduate pass-outs of co-op programs. However, foreign-trained workforce as well as traditional ICT program graduates will have a hard time finding suitable jobs in Canada, the report suggests.

Multidisciplinary skills-need of the time—The report from ICTC suggests that workers possessing multidisciplinary skills along with a degree of business management will be the most suitable candidates for IT jobs in Canada.

Solutions suggested by the ICTC report--- The report seems to provide possible solutions to the problem of looming shortage of IT skilled workforce in Canada.

These are listed below---

• Greater emphasis on university and college technology programs with special focus on co-op placements;

• More work needed for better integration of foreign-trained workers in Canada;

• Increased focus on women workers, aboriginal as well as other workers falling in the category of non-traditional workforce in Canada. Young people, in the recent past, had felt compelled for seeking other options after the IT sector failed to promote itself as the best career, admits the tech industry.

Moreover, it has been quite unsuccessful in attracting and retaining women workers in the IT industry primarily due to inability of the IT sector to deal with the work-life balance of female workers.