Canadian Advanced Technology Association Information Technology Skills Shortage Survey

OVERVIEW

The majority of Canadian advanced technology companies face a skills shortage, and half have job openings going unfilled. This situation is considered very serious for a third of the companies with current openings and a full quarter report they will be unable to meet the demand for their goods and services because of the skills shortage.

In response to this situation, many companies are currently turning to workers from outside Canada to fill their needs, and many who have not yet employed non-Canadians are willing to consider turning to offshore workers.

The key set of skills required is in the management category, followed by programming ability and database design and analysis.

Yet, although they face a skills shortage, only forty percent of advanced technology companies have programs in place to retrain current employees to move into advanced technology jobs. Of this group, half prefer to train in-house, a quarter source training from schools, and the remainder choose private training companies.

PERCEPTION OF SKILLS SHORTAGE

Canadian advanced technology businesses (88%) believe they face a skills shortage. Many jobs remain open because of this shortage.

Half (54%) report their company has advanced technology employment opportunities which have been open for at least the past 3 months. The problem is especially acute in medium to large sized companies where three quarters report having had openings for more than 3 months.

Almost all companies with job openings report the skills shortage is at least somewhat serious. Of the 119 companies stating they have had job openings for at least three months, one-third (34%) indicated the shortage of technology workers needed to fill the positions was very serious. Sixty-one percent reported the shortage was somewhat serious.

The shortage was most significant among mid -sized companies of between 51 and 250 employees. Half (49%) said the problem is very serious.

IMPACT OF SKILLS SHORTAGE

The shortage of advanced technology skills is going to hurt Canadian business. Respondents from companies with open positions were asked how much impact the skills shortage might have on their company's ability to meet demand for their goods and services if they could fill only half the open positions. A quarter (25%) reported they would not be able to meet demand at all. Two-thirds (65%) reported there would be some decline in ability to meet demand.

The new jobs in the advanced technology industry will be full time permanent positions. Most (81%) companies expect to be hiring within the next 6 months, and the majority of all new hires (71%) will be full time salaried positions; only 20% will be term contracts. There was no full or part-time hourly paid positions contemplated. Only 6% reported they would hire external consultants.

DEALING WITH THE SKILLS SHORTAGE

Skill Sets Needed

Programming ability is the critical skill set need in the advanced technology sector. 67% of companies need programmers, 29% need systems analysts, a quarter (26%) require database analysts and 16% need to hire coders. 18% need an MIS position filled.

Increasingly, management of advanced technology work is an issue. While many of the basic skills such as programming/coding and database design/analysis are needed, management of information technology and systems is a crucial set of needed skills.

Training

While there is a perceived shortage of skills, the majority of companies (59%) have no program in place to train workers. For the four in ten companies that have a program designed to retrain current employees to move into advanced technology jobs, half prefer to train in-house, two in ten (18%) out-source this service and just under a quarter (23%) utilize the services of local colleges, technical schools and universities.

Sixty percent of Canadian advanced technology companies are active in education support programs. Youth internship programs, scholarship programs, job shadowing and equipment sponsorship are the most popular.

Off-shore Workers

Very few companies feel that offshore advanced technology workers are better in quality to that found in Canada. A majority feels that the quality of offshore workers is equal (40%) or worse (10%) than Canadian quality. Just over a quarter (28%) had no experience and could not answer the question.

Of those companies that had some experience with offshore workers, almost four in ten (38%) currently employ offshore advanced technology workers.

Given the shortage of skills, it is not surprising that a majority of Canadian companies would be willing to turn to offshore workers to fill the gap. Three in ten are very willing, and a third (33%) are somewhat willing to bring offshore advanced technology employees into their company.

Virtual Teams: The Internet

A quarter of Canadian advanced technology companies are using the Internet to create virtual development/programming teams. For those remaining companies not using the Internet to create virtual teams, just under a quarter (23%) are interested in implementing this concept within the next twelve months. A third stated they would not use this channel, and just over four in ten (44%) were unsure of the concept and what it would mean for their company.

METHODOLOGY

The Canadian Advanced Technology Association asked its partner, Angus Reid Group, to survey CATA members regarding the issue of skills shortages in the advanced technology sector.

This polling is part of an on-going relationship between CATA and Angus Reid Group which sees Angus Reid polling CATA members on a frequent basis regarding topical issues facing the Canadian advanced technology sector.

Using Decisive Technology's "Decisive Survey" e-mail instrument to gather the data, all CATA members with an email address received an e-mail questionnaire.

Of the roughly 2,400 e-mail-enabled members, 220 responded immediately and it is upon this set of responses that the following press release is based. More companies will be participating over the next two weeks, and the information reported below will be augmented by the end of June. A more thorough report will be issued at that time.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Angus Reid Group
(416)324-2900