New survey reveals future of ICT skills demand

AMMAN — The Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship on Monday announced the results of a study on the supply-demand gap for digital skills in the labor market, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The study, conducted by the ministry's Digital Skills Association (DigiSkills) as part of the Youth, Technology and Jobs (YTJ) project, showed a thorough assessment of digital skills required to keep pace with the dramatically increasing demand in the information technology and communication sector (ICT) locally, regionally and globally, according to a ministry post published on social media.

The results showed a 12-per cent growth in the ICT sector workforce in 2021, which comprised 25 per cent females and 75 per cent males.

Looking towards the future, the survey indicated that the most in-demand careers will be in the ICT subfields of cyber security, cloud computing, big data analytics, artifical intelligence and machine learning, in addition to mobile technology.

In terms of sector requirements and digital skills, the study categorised the necessary skillsets into “tech skills” and “soft skills”. 

Among the tech skills specific to Jordan’s ICT sector needs are project management, Agile (Scrum), basic computer usage and knowledge o f programming languages such as C, Java, MATLAB, HTML and Python, among others. 

The field’s soft skills that are currently in demand in the Kingdom include cultural awareness, customer orientation, English language skills, flexibility and adaptability, problem solving and creative thinking, according to the study.

In light of the study, the ministry called for enhancing female participation in the workforce through flexible working hours, remote working, training programmes and educational campaigns, Petra reported.