FEATURE : SKILLS & TRAINING free educational initiatives that help to train the next generation of IT talent by means of leading educational establishments worldwide ,” he said .
Stephen Gill , Academic Head , School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences , Heriot-Watt University Dubai , said because it takes the right combination of business , IT and soft skills to achieve long-term success in the digital era , hiring external talent may not be enough . Gill said CIOs need to keep reinventing their upskilling , reskilling and training strategies to truly transform the organisation and to ensure Business Continuity . “ In other words , it isn ’ t the sole responsibility of the human resources department . Tackling the skills gap in data science or cybersecurity , for example , needs employment development programmes that prepares existing staff for the changing nature of work , ensuring no one is excluded from opportunity ,” he pointed out .
According to Gill , the HR department can support with conducting a careful skills gap analysis of the entire organisation to identify the missing skills that the staff need in the present and future . “ The skills gap analysis further helps with shaping the talent management strategy – whether it is to leverage in-house experts or to bring in external consultants for implementing training programmes ,” he said . “ Despite the hot demand for data scientists , AI engineers and ML developers , it is hard to find qualified people . As organisations embrace Digital Transformation , shift to the cloud , and implement advanced analytics to understand their customers better , CIOs should start looking at providing upskilling and reskilling opportunities to their teams .”
Sajith Kumar , General Manager – Enterprise , Cloud Box Technologies agreed with Gill and said : “ I strongly believe it is a joint responsibility for both the CIO and HR on hiring the right talent with appropriate skills in line with the organisation ’ s business objectives . A CIO is able to predict future IT skills and accordingly HR can look for those skills within the organisation or outside . Upskilling and reskilling is critical in today ’ s world and we have already experienced the changes that the pandemic has brought on the job market and the economic landscape . Current needs now entail upskilling and reskilling existing resources which will enable businesses to be more effective where there is a constant demand for mobilising the existing talent base .”
Osama Al-Zoubi , CTO , Cisco MEA
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