What can we do about the ICT skills gap?

In a study by Beltug, “Continuity amidst turbulence. The 2023 Belgian Business ICT market study”, the ICT skills gap is discussed in detail. What did the research reveal?

Danielle Jacobs: “There is a clear gap. Almost half the companies surveyed see an impact on ICT projects because they can’t find enough people or are short of certain competencies. In eight out of ten companies that are impacted, there is a delay in ICT projects. Add to that inflation – with the impact on staff costs and the extra cost of engaging external consultants – and you have a huge problem. At the same time, we are also seeing companies that are solving the shortage by just speeding up projects, for example by focusing on the automation of repetitive tasks.”

If you’re looking for a profile on the market, you want to tick as many boxes as possible, preferably with relevant experience in a similar context at a similar company. We have to get away from that. It’s the potential of a candidate that's important.

Danielle Jacobs, CEO of Beltug

Femke Vandoninck: “We are observing that the demand for highly skilled, experienced, and immediately deployable IT professionals is greater than the supply. We are less able to meet the demand for a profile immediately. The age of posting a vacancy for a certain skill and then choosing the best candidate is over. Recruiting IT resources requires precisely the opposite of the classic recruitment approach. You need to actively seek out people, convince them to work for you, and form partnerships that aren't traditional. The role of recruiter for IT professionals has completely changed.”

Shortages in data, security, cloud, and AI

As early as 2020, McKinsey published a study indicating that the skills gap in companies is greatest in the area of data. Where do you see the greatest needs today?

Danielle: “Based on my conversations with companies, I would say: security, cloud, and everything related to data and AI. But it is actually difficult in all ICT domains.”

Femke: “I agree, the problem is not just in data or analytics. Security is also top of mind. The number of cyberattacks is increasing exponentially. But many domains – including the use of sovereign cloud – all require attention at the same time.”

Danielle: “And because there are not enough people, some things remain underutilized. Our study shows, for example, that companies don’t make much use of multicloud. They already have a hard time getting enough expertise in-house around one platform, let alone doing that for two or more platforms.”

Femke: “It also isn’t easy for someone to develop broad knowledge. That’s why we are taking more and more initiatives around T-shaping. Here, the vertical leg indicates the deep expertise, whereas the horizontal line indicates at the same time relevant understanding of adjacent domains. But it’s not always easy to achieve that.”

Education should remain broad-based

The ‘skills gap analysis’ study by Valamis shows that 79% of respondents find it cheaper to ‘re-skill’ existing employees than to recruit new ones. Why are these new employees not up to the mark? Is there something wrong with ICT training in this country?

Danielle: “I think it’s important that colleges and universities continue to provide a general education. In the long term, it’s better to have a broader range of knowledge and skills.”

Femke: “It makes more sense to recruit on the basis of learning ability, flexibility and the desire to specialize further, and focus less on a specific expertise. So, ready-prepared graduates are not the answer, although that is what some companies would like. Education must safeguard the capacity to learn. Only this way will students get to know the breadth of the field and become interested in certain specializations. It is then up to companies to invest in training on the job.”

It makes more sense to recruit on the basis of learning ability, flexibility and the desire to specialize further, and focus less on a specific expertise.

Femke Vandoninck, HR manager at Proximus

Rika Coppens, the CEO of House of HR, stated in De Tijd that the shortage in the labor market is partly due to a lack of flexibility among employers. Is that your experience?

Danielle: “If you’re looking for a profile on the market, you want to tick as many boxes as possible, preferably with relevant experience in a similar context at a similar company. We have to get away from that. We need to learn to formulate vacancies differently and to offer potential profiles more opportunities. But that’s not always easy.”

Femke: “Of course, there are many different jobs within ICT. For bigger players, it’s easier to cross-pollinate between different profiles and recruit and then train employees.”

Scalability and service provider

What role can a company like Proximus play in the search for a solution to the ICT skills gap?

Danielle: “Companies that are having difficulties finding specific expertise are shifting the problem by using a service provider like Proximus. Of course, scalability has a role to play in the competition between companies. A service provider may give an ICT employee a more interesting offer, because this makes it easier to work on different projects or at different companies.”

Danielle Jacobs, CEO of Beltug

Femke: “This scalability is an important factor. We also find it difficult sometimes to find ICT profiles that can be deployed immediately, but we do have more opportunities to invest in training and education. This is how we make our employees more relevant to our customers, and we can scale faster when we need specific profiles for a particular need. We also have the opportunity to offer more career opportunities and variety.”

Learning to work with AI

Which job vacancy that doesn’t yet exist today will be posted in 2030?

Danielle: “Everything’s evolving too fast for me to be able to give an answer to that question. ICT will be embedded in every function in the future. It will be almost impossible to find a job for which you don’t need any understanding of ICT, digital processes, or user interface. AI, security, and privacy are everywhere. Just like kids who are learning to interact with social media, businesses now need to learn to work with AI: what’s reliable and what’s not? The importance of awareness will only increase.”

Femke: “If AI also helps drive cyberattacks, I think extreme skills will be needed to tackle them. And anyone who replaces repetitive tasks with AI will need to be even better equipped to correctly interpret the results obtained. At the same time, we will have to learn to work together in a new way to share knowledge.”