{"id":83628,"date":"2016-07-06T09:57:24","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T14:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=83628"},"modified":"2017-04-07T19:24:35","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T00:24:35","slug":"skills-lacking-underutilised-caribbean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2016\/07\/skills-lacking-underutilised-caribbean\/","title":{"rendered":"Are IT skills lacking or are just underutilised in the Caribbean?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0results\u00a0of recently released global survey indicate that skilled IT labour is lacking .In this post, we explore\u00a0whether\u00a0IT skills lacking in the Caribbean, or are just\u00a0underutilised.<\/i><\/p>\n


\nLast week in Barbados, the results of the <\/span>Harvey Nash\/KPMG CIO Survey 2016<\/span><\/i> were released. Harvey Nash is a global talent management and recruitment firm, whilst KPMG is one of the \u2018Big Four\u2019 auditing firms that has a presence in some Caribbean countries. The CIO (Chief Information Officer) survey is considered the largest global IT leadership survey. In the 2016, almost 3,400 CIOs and technology leaders across 82 countries participated in the exercise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though a deep-dive into the survey results may be undertaken at a later date, one of the most compelling outputs of the exercise, which was discussed at the Barbados event last week, was shortage skilled IT labour: <\/span><\/p>\n

A new global information technology (IT) leadership survey has found that a shortage of skilled IT workers and threats to cyber security are major challenges in the way of companies keeping pace with innovation and disruptive technology…<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Of even greater concern to the businesses was the absence of the relevant IT skills among employees, with 65 per cent of respondents reporting that a lack of talent prevented their organizations from \u201ckeeping up with the pace of change\u201d…. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

(Source: \u00a0<\/span>Barbados Today<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While some Caribbean CIOs might have participated in the survey, the results may not necessarily truly reflect what obtains in the region. Though businesses might complain that the IT talent in the region is inadequate, or the skills of the talent being produced is limited, the corresponding argument can be made that Caribbean businesses are not truly harnessing what is\u00a0available. In the paragraphs that follow, we highlight some observations and considerations, which could assist us in deciding whether IT skills are indeed lacking, or are they just underutilised in the Caribbean.<\/span><\/p>\n

Insufficient demand for IT skills?<\/span><\/h3>\n

Whilst this question might seem somewhat controversial, in many Caribbean countries, university graduates of Computer Science, Software Development, IT, and similar programmes, struggle to\u00a0find gainful employment in their areas of study. Instead, and if they are lucky, they end up in\u00a0a Management Information Systems Department, where their role is tend to revolve around systems and network maintenance, and not necessary potentially innovative or disruptive activities. <\/span><\/p>\n

Caribbean businesses may not know what their IT needs are<\/span><\/h3>\n

In the Caribbean, where most of the businesses are Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), having an IT or CIO-type professional on staff is unlikely. \u00a0Though they may be more commonplace among medium enterprises, their focus almost exclusively around managing existing system and maintenance. Little or no attention is given to how technology could be better harnessed by the organisation to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and\/or the production and delivery of goods and services, to name a few. <\/span><\/p>\n

The skills needed to to manage an organisation\u2019s information system is considerably different from that of a CIO, who would influence corporate strategy, along with tactics and processes implemented across the entire organisation. However, the absence of having access to a CIO-type expertise,\u00a0most Caribbean MSMEs would be at a severe disadvantage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Caribbean businesses cannot afford a full time IT professional<\/span><\/h3>\n

Following from the previous point, many firms, especially MSMEs, tend not to be able to afford a IT professional full time. Invariably, they opt to outsource their needs, which usually is around installation, maintenance and repair of their information system to third party contractors – just to keep their existing systems up and running.<\/span><\/p>\n

Third-party CIO-type services not readily available<\/span><\/h3>\n

Finally, an observation: although through third party contractors many businesses procure, install and maintain their systems and networks, very few of those contractors offer corporate advisory services. They may advise on what computing devices to purchase, or what digital configurations might satisfies a firm\u2019s needs, etc., but they do not advise\u00a0or provide insights\u00a0on matters that\u00a0can help shape an organisation\u2019s strategy – similar to what a CIO might do.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having said this, organisations would need to be amenable to having external individuals involved in what they may consider confidential or commercially sensitive discussions. However, access to that type of expertise and insight could be invaluable to help organisation move to the next level – whatever that might be.<\/span><\/p>\n

Final thoughts…<\/span><\/h3>\n

In summary, there is a still a sense that outside of systems and network management, Caribbean businesses still do not fully appreciate the value of having of the\u00a0IT professional,\u00a0and utilising their skills and expertise to advance their organisations. However, there may also be some opportunities, especially for third party contractors and consultants to offer IT advisory and management services, which could be extremely beneficial to MSMEs in particular, which they might be unable to afford on a full-time basis.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Image credit: \u00a0Bob Mical<\/a>\u00a0(flickr)<\/em><\/p>\n

_____________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0results\u00a0of recently released global survey indicate that skilled IT labour is lacking .In this post, we explore\u00a0whether\u00a0IT skills lacking in the Caribbean, or are just\u00a0underutilised. Last week in Barbados, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[82,17,27,11],"tags":[71,32,204],"class_list":["post-83628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-caribbean","category-computing","category-ict-tech","tag-businesses","tag-information-society","tag-innovation-2","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Data-centre-Bob-Mical-flickr.jpg?fit=640%2C424&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-lKQ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83628"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96989,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83628\/revisions\/96989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}