ILO urges training to offset European "skills gap" in information and communications technology

Citation

(2001), "ILO urges training to offset European "skills gap" in information and communications technology", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 33 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2001.03733cab.004

ILO urges training to offset European "skills gap" in information and communications technology

ILO urges training to offset European "skills gap" in information and communications technology

Keywords: Training, Skills shortages, Information technology, Communications technology, Europe

The "skills gap" in Europe's information and communications technology (ICT) workforce risks becoming a "critical bottle-neck to the expansion of ICT industries" according to a report prepared for the ILO's (International Labour Organization's) 6th European Regional Meeting (Report of the Director-General, Vol. I, Globalizing Europe; Report of the Director-General, Vol. II, Decent Work in Europe and Central Asia, Sixth European Regional Meeting, International Labour Office, Geneva).

The report predicts that, while job growth in European ICT industries will increase by more than 8 per cent annually in coming years, the number of unfilled vacancies in ICT risks tripling from half a million in 1998 to 1.6 million in 2002 because of skills shortages and an ageing workforce. The report cites one estimate that "the skills gap has cost US$106 billion in lost gross domestic product since 1998 and will continue to do so in the absence of skills".

It predicts that the ICT revolution will present opportunities for many, but not all, of Europe's 15 million unemployed workers because "the skills required for the new jobs typically differ quite substantially from those of workers made redundant". The report highlights the challenge of retraining as "an especially important policy area to address".

However, because training is an investment that pays off in the long term, the report notes that short-term demand for skilled ICT workers means that "there is pressure from employers for immigration laws to be eased", a development that might assist receiving countries, but result in "brain drain" from sending countries. The spread of new technologies will also have significant implications for the organisation of work and production. The report says that "ICT erodes the logic of how work came to be organised in the industrial world".

The ILO Director-General, Juan Somavia, noted that "enterprises across the Continent are facing the challenge. But this is not an economy in which anyone can afford to sit on their laurels".

He added that "the information revolution is changing both the problems and the solutions; responses will vary, but the underlying issue is the same for all: social and economic progress depends heavily on successful participation in the knowledge economy".

The ILO report warns that, if skills shortages persist, industry relocation may increase as firms gravitate to labour markets where systems analysts, programmers and technicians are abundant, further widening the digital divide between the technologically rich and poor regions in Europe.

The problems associated with the skills shortfall in ICT "are even more critical in Central and Eastern Europe", where "a likely scenario is that widening gaps will accompany the gains from ICT diffusion".

In spite of the difficulties, European "connectivity" and e-commerce look set to increase dramatically. According to the report, Europe counts roughly 50 million Internet users, approximately one-third of the level in the USA, with Internet usage in Europe now growing "more rapidly than in any other region of the world".

The number of Internet users in the European workplace is expected to grow from an estimated 29 million (28 per cent of the workforce) to 77 million (70 per cent of the workforce) by the year 2004.

In the wealthiest countries "over half the workforce is already employed in work that consists primarily of information handling". Even in the production of physical products, such as machinery or automobiles, there is much more knowledge embedded in the processes than ever before. "Machinists", the report says, "are now likely to be computer specialists".

European electronic commerce, which was scarcely heard of just a few years ago, generated $17 billion in revenues at the end of 1999, a figure that was forecast to double in 2000 and again in 2001.