As pointed out in the European Commission (EC) report “Monitoring E-Skills Demand and Supply in Europe”, a significant gap in the labour market of the ICT sector could be caused by the time lag, i.e. the time usually needed to acquire ICT professional skills. The shortage of human resources will grow significantly in the sector and skills mismatches will be observed. The overall situation both in the labour market as well as in the sector is, no doubt, dependent on the economic climate and welfare in the particular country, nevertheless, independent processes relating to technologies and innovations also exist. ICT professional services are increasingly more often outsourced abroad and it is quite commonly a huge challenge to find an employee with a particular set of skills. General European statistics suggest that more than a half of people possessing an ICT related education work outside the industry. Strangely enough, other data suggest that the number of people without an adequate education in the ICT sector has grown and the employers even allow them to take positions requiring ICT competencies.

• Forecasting of the future almost always involves speculations and assumptions that are difficult to justify, particularly considering the economic downturn observed throughout the EU; nevertheless, considering the topicality of the issue, the EC has completed an in-depth evaluation of the ICT industry by preparing a pan-European e-skills monitor within the framework of which several prospective ICT future development scenarios are forecast:
  A return to “before the crisis”. Moderate growth development model, with ICT-based innovation developing unevenly across Europe. This would result in a limited e-skills gap (estimated at 384 000 excess demand in 2015 or about 8% of the industry workforce).
• Investing in the future. This scenario provides for an acceleration of demand towards 2015, with targeted and planned investments in the development of e-environment and internet solutions. This would result in an average large estimated e-skills gap of 580 000 jobs in 2015 or about 11% of the ICT workforce. 
• Turbo knowledge economy. The knowledge economy takes off in Europe, thanks to a virtuous circle of productivity and economic growth driven by widespread diffusion of ICT-based innovation. ICT careers become more attractive and demand of e-skills grows, leading to a particularly high demand for ICT skills. The resulting e-skills gap would be approximately 669 000 jobs in 2015 or about 13% of the ICT workforce.

Besides those three scenarios, general stagnation in the ICT industry is also possible as well as the return to the old traditions caused by the European economic downturn. Mainly the shortage of public and private sector investment and the policies of export-related companies would result in a minimum gap of 1.7% of all industry workforce.

The latest data point to the probability of an even wider gap in 2015 (approximately 900 000 jobs). Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, published an announcement on 5 March 2013 urging European IT companies, public administration institutions as well as the representatives of the sectors of education and training to join a Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs in Europe.

According to the data published in the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS) research paper, the results of the Latvian ICT specialists are only slightly lower in comparison with the average figures of all EU Member States. Looking at particular indicators, it has to be noted that Latvia has the second lowest figure in Europe as to ICT professionals aged 50 years and over, which points to the fact that relatively young people are entering the labour market. Moreover, the share of ICT professionals with an academic degree is rather large in Latvia. The statistics show that most Latvian ICT professionals work in small companies related to the demand side of the industry requiring young ICT specialists (60% of all respondents). European figures, in turn, show the dominance of the supply side (organising and delivering young specialist training to prepare them for the labour market).

Within the framework of the European Get Online Week 2013, the fourth European e-skills week will be held in Latvia from March 18 to 24 this year, which will be organised by The Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association (LICTA) in cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (VARAM). The objective of this event is to inform wider public on the opportunities of learning and applying e-skills, the opportunities offered by e-services and e-environment. The main subjects for 2013 are the e-skills portfolio (improvement of the ICT knowledge of young people and company employees), digital adventure (activities for seniors) and my digital environment (security aspects in internet environment, social networks, eSignature, eID cards etc.). Last year over 36 thousand participants participated in the e-skills week as well as 200 cooperation partners. 890 various events were held throughout Latvia, as a result of which Latvia can be considered the most active participant of the e-skills week in Europe.

Finally, we can conclude that, in order to improve their competitiveness and performance, Latvian ICT professionals should develop their planning, development, maintenance, adaption as well as management skills and competencies as required by the dynamic and changing environment of the modern economy.

FYI (1): The official website of the E-skills week and complete calendar of the week’s events.
FYI (2): Dynamic University infogram “Computer skills and IT labour market” developed based on the information materials and research results of the European Commission developed based on the information materials and research results of the European Commission.