{"id":67729,"date":"2014-10-01T08:37:01","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T13:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=67729"},"modified":"2017-04-07T20:34:37","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T01:34:37","slug":"skills-todays-software-developers-competitive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2014\/10\/skills-todays-software-developers-competitive\/","title":{"rendered":"Skills today\u2019s software developers need to be more competitive"},"content":{"rendered":"

A quick look at the top computer programmes languages for 2014, and additional skills that software developers ought to possess to better positioned for the current market.<\/em><\/p>\n

In newspapers in Trinidad and Tobago last week, and as reflected in our latest news roundup<\/a> (published on Monday, 29 September), policy makers in the twin-island republic have recognised and are trying to address the limited software development talent that is available. In recent remarks made by the country\u2019s Planning Minister, Dr Bhoe Tewarie, he indicated that a US software development firm with operations in Trinidad and Tobago had been looking for 40 local software developers, but found less than four:<\/p>\n

Imagine we have all these engineers coming out of university and we have all these companies that are involved in ICT and yet we do not have any apps capability in this country. If we want to be in the new world we also have to understand how to create the capacity in order to do that\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n

(Source: Trinidad & Tobago Guardian<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To address this deficiency, Trinidad and Tobago has reportedly established and applications (apps) laboratory at the Centre of Enterprise Development, and it has partnered with Microsoft to establish a Microsoft Innovation Centre. The Centre will be formally launched in October.<\/p>\n

In the short-to-medium- term, this apps laboratory and the innovation centre could boost innovation considerably in Trinidad and Tobago. However, with regard to increasing the country\u2019s software developer numbers, it is unclear how those two initiatives would achieve this. Trinidad and Tobago already has a relatively well-educated work force and a relatively low unemployment rate, in comparison with other Caribbean countries. Hence the labour pool that can be tapped to increase the stable of developers may itself be limited.<\/p>\n

Having said this, globally, there is a growing demand for software developers, which is expected to last well into the foreseeable future. In order for countries, and more importantly individuals, to position themselves to take advantage of those opportunities, first we are highlighting the most popular programming languages for 2014. Thereafter, we briefly discuss some additional skills that prospective (and existing) software developers should possess in order to be more marketable.<\/p>\n

What are the programming languages that are in demand?<\/h3>\n

Currently, there are scores of computer programming languages in which applications are being developed. Though it might be possible to learn most of them, some are in greater demand than others. Table 1 lists the most popular languages from a number of resources.<\/p>\n

\"Table

Table 1: Top programing languages in 2014 (Sources: IEEE, Tiobe, Mashable, eWeek)<\/p><\/div>\n

It is emphasised that some languages are better suited for certain types of activities or operations than others. For example, highly structured languages, such as C, tend to be preferred for complicated and robust functions, e.g. for financial services-related applications, or for complex database systems, such as Oracle. On the other hand, for web pages with strong design elements, Ruby, PHP, and JavaScript, tend to be better options.<\/p>\n

Having said this, and unless one is positioning him\/herself as a specialist in a particular area, today\u2019s developers ought to have some proficiency in a cross section of programmes in order to be more marketable. Some recommendations industry experts have made include the following:<\/p>\n