(MEBG) – A recent study commissioned by Cisco Systems and conducted by IDC (International Data Corporation) has revealed a severe IT skills shortage in the Middle East region.
The figures show Turkey has seen the gap between demand and supply widen to 45 percent, while the UAE has a 35 percent shortfall in supply and in Saudi Arabia the gap is 24 percent.
In comparison, the European average is a 34 percent difference between demand and supply. The report predicts that by 2003, the Middle East region will face that same collective shortage.
At a recent regional symposium in Damascus, organized by the Syrian Computer Society (SCS) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), entitled “Jobs in the Information Society of the 21st Century,' UNDP advisor Jersey Szeremeta, warned that Arab states would need to come up with around seven million skilled workers by 2015 to accommodate the expanding IT market.
The deficit in skilled professionals capable of running Internet-based networks represents one of the most critical challenges facing the IT industry. Raising such intellectual capital becomes almost impossible considering Western computer programmers in the Gulf make a tax-free average of $28,644 while their compatriots in the United States make a gross $64,000 a year.
In face of such difficulties novel measures are in demand. UAE University and the Jordan University of Science and Technology have created a Regional Networking Academy, preparing to teach students the skills currently in short supply. In the private sector, agencies such as the Dubai Spot On PR firm, which lists Microsoft, Compaq, Cisco and Business Software Alliance among its clientele, has come up with innovative approaches to recruiting, including rounds of popular lunch-time spots announcing job opportunities, and a radio campaign.
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
