Think the IT skills gap is a myth? There are currently 607,708 open computing jobs nationwide, but only 42,969 computer science students graduated into the workforce last year. Who will fill over half a million open positions?
“IDC reports that business investment in digital transformation initiatives will reach $2.2 trillion worldwide by 2019,” says Jason Brommet writing in the Microsoft Partner Network Blog. “That staggering sum represents a 60% increase year over year.”
Brommet goes on to point out that, “There is a growing need for skilled professionals with the right technical skills to capitalize on the cloud opportunity. In fact, that skills gap is the most commonly cited barrier to digitization among CIOs.”
IT “Skills Gap” Stats That Will Astound You
Reporting in an April 2016 article in Fortune magazine titled “The Real Reasons Behind the Tech Skills Gap” writer Dean Hager explains, “Numbers tell the story of a painful contradiction: The United States needs many more tech workers, but schools aren’t providing enough training to meet the requirement.
- Nine in 10 parents want their child to study computer science, but only one in four schools teach computer programming, according to the organization behind Computer Science Education Week, an annual program dedicated to inspiring K-12 students to take interest in computer science.
- There are currently 607,708 open computing jobs nationwide, but only 42,969 computer science students graduated into the workforce last year, says Code.org, a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science.
- By 2018, 51% of all Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) jobs are projected to be in computer science-related fields, according to the White House. The federal government alone needs an additional 10,000 IT and cyber security professionals, and the private sector needs many more. “Computer science is not only important for the tech sector,” says a White House fact sheet, “but also for a growing number of industries, including transportation, healthcare, education, and financial services, that are using software to transform their products and services. In fact, more than two-thirds of all tech jobs are outside the tech sector.”
- And, women and minorities are woefully underrepresented in computer science education (and the computer science field in general). In the fewer than 15 percent of all high schools that offered any advanced placement computer science courses in 2015, only 22% of those who took the exam were girls and only 13% were African-American or Latino students.”
Hanu ROCK U
Responding to the reality that people are a major component of a complete cloud solution, and the lack of skilled experts is becoming a crisis, the cloud experts at Hanu Software have created Hanu ROCK U, a comprehensive program designed to produce true Cloud Technology Rockstars rapidly and effectively. Drawing not only on the extensive expertise but also the long experience of the Hanu team makes this program uniquely “real-world” resulting in trained personnel who are ready to hit the ground running.
As Hanu always like to be at the forefront of innovation for providing cloud solutions to our customers, we also look to be innovative on talent acquisition. As the space Hanu works in is high growth and finding proper skilled talent can be challenging, Hanu has developed a cloud training program and executed this program with Ready to Work.
Ready to Work is a federal-grant program designed to find, train and match individuals who have been out of work for six or more months with prospective employers. The New Jersey program is managed by the NJ Community College Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development, which coordinates the training services provided by the state’s 19 community colleges.
Hanu partnered with Ready to Work New Jersey to set up a training program at the company’s in-house ROCK University (ROCK U). With this program, we have access to highly experienced IT and Technology professionals, in which we put them through our intensive cloud training from to produce Azure certified Rockstars.
Hanu points out three ways in which Azure customers can realize value from the Cloud Rockstars coming out of Hanu ROCK U in several ways. Individuals enrolling in the program personally become immediately available for hire upon completion. Many of these individuals are hired directly by Hanu to serve clients with their expertise in cloud migration, monitoring, management, and support. Some Hanu clients have even engaged Hanu to come in and deliver customized Hanu ROCK U programs for their existing IT staff to augment their existing skills.
Learn more about how Hanu ROCK U can help you and your company close the skills gap. You can reach out to me at asingh@us.hanu.com with your queries.
