IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

City, state and national governments move to ease qualification-sharing

Government agencies in various countries have been actively involved in issuing digital credentials to their citizens and temporary residents to provide access to resources.

For instance, the New South Wales (NSW) Government has collaborated with Learning Vault to create a digital skills passport platform in Australia. This platform enables individuals to manage and share their skills and qualifications through verifiable credentials.

Despite the current levels of unemployment, the number of digital jobs is growing by more than 100 000 per year. Yet the number of fresh ICT graduates and skilled ICT workers is not keeping up.

Healthcare IT, in recent years, has grown to become one of the fastest-growing niches in the industry, Chong Yoke Sin, CEO at Integrated Health Information Systems (IHIS), told ZDNet Asia. IHIS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore's Ministry of Health Holdings (MOHH) and oversees the IT resources of all healthcare institutions under the MOHH, which includes SingHealth and National Healthcare Group.

“All great changes are preceded by chaos,” wrote Indian-American author Deepak Chopra. This is especially true today, as a global pandemic was succeeded by great technological innovations.

Governments had to gather their bearings, pivot quickly, and use technology to come up with new services. This has highlighted the need for a tech-savvy, agile civil service.

In November, the lack of sufficient human resources was identified by the Prime Minister’s Committee on the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of India as the biggest constraint in the adoption of e-governance. The government currently employs only 5000 IT professionals, 50 per cent of whom work in a single agency.

There are currently only a few IT training opportunities for Saudi youth, who represent a large and important segment of society.

Advancements in ICT and the deployment of networks enable greater opportunities for development, access to information and more open communication.

We have seen companies in the ICT sector striving to bridge the digital divide - so everyone can afford to enjoy the benefits of communications. Some have moved farther to shift their focus from ‘a phone for everyone’ to ‘broadband for everyone’, to enable users to tap the infinite possibilities that a connected world presents.

During the recent G8 summit, David Cameron spoke candidly about the UK government's information economy strategy and its desire for the UK to have a strong position in the global race for technological innovation. It is also clear the government is becoming more committed to the adoption of cloud computing and delivering computing resources. The G-Cloud programme is an iterative programme of work to achieve this, which will deliver fundamental changes in the way the public sector procures and operates ICT. Furthermore, the government has invested £440m through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), to raise the profile and relevance of cloud adoption and the importance of business growth to the wider political and business agenda.

The event is organised by the Curriculum Management and eLearning Department (CMeLD) within the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education (DQSE) and the Directorate for Educational Services (DES), and this year’s running theme is Maltese history.

She was speaking at the Sixth Congregation of the Holy Child College of Education at Takoradi.

Some 185 students who completed courses in Basic Education and Early Childhood Education in 2012 were presented with diplomas at the congregation.

From February to March 2011, 44 civil servants completed the ICDL programme which covers modules meant to impart basic knowledge in handling computers especially in utilising e-mails and ICT systems—an objective in line with the e-Government Strategic Plan’s target to have 100 per cent e-mail usage in the civil service.

Sharifah Hajah Fatmah bte Shaikh Haji Ahmad, the Director of Civil Services Institute (IPA), said the government has plans to further proliferate this programme.

The Ministry of Information & Communications Technology (ictQATAR) and Community College of Qatar (CCQ) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate to empower and train Qatari youth to use ICT effectively and opening up a world of possibilities for them.

The MoU will provide a foundation for both parties to benefit from each other's expertise, resources and initiatives to introduce Qatari students to the benefits of ICTs and unique opportunities in the sector. As entailed in the MoU, this partnership will help equip the CCQ students with relevant experiences and connect them with potential employers, which would help build skilled Qatari workforce in this critical sector.

The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., announced that the Higher Education Authority (HEA) is today issuing a tender for a second phase of ICT graduate skills conversion programmes to commence in early 2013.

The debate surrounding the introduction of computing classes in Irish schools has been simmering for the past two years, fuelled by the popularity of the CoderDojo movement, and companies citing a lack of skilled graduates to fill ICT positions.

With 900,000 ICT vacancies predicted across the European Union in 2015, bridging the skills gap could present Europe’s young with some great opportunities, according to Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton.

The report, which follows from a survey of 38 major multinationals and SMEs employing more than 25,000 people in the IT sector in Ireland, claims there are more than 4,500 immediate vacancies in Ireland’s ICT sector and that these jobs are not being filled because candidates do not have the skills required.

While these positions range from entry level to expert level, many of them require intermediate-level skills that FIT believes can be obtained through six to 24-month long training programmes.

The Government's advisory body on trade, science, technology and innovation says changes must be made if the country is to meet demand for skills in this area between now and 2018.

The report also predicts that more than 44,000 job openings in the Information and Communication Technology sector could arise over the next six years here.

The college has been chosen to partner ICS Skills to provide internet training to 4,500 people around the country to tackle the large number of the population who are 'digitally excluded'.

The 'Get Ireland Online' programme is part of the Benefit 3 scheme which has awarded €1.88m for 20 training projects run by community and voluntary groups and not-for-profit organisations across Ireland and aims to upskill 40,000 people. As part of this scheme, the College will ensure 200 people are certified with basic IT skills to prevent them from missing out on opportunities most people now take for granted in Ireland.

The programmes have been devised, based on the needs of industry. Microsoft, for instance, has been heavily involved in devising the new cloud computing MSc, in addition to the other two programmes.

According to the university, the MSc in management (cloud computing) has been designed to develop people's knowledge and expertise in the principles, technologies, services, applications, challenges and benefits of cloud computing. DCU said the master's is intended for graduates from a business background.

The introduction of computer technology had brought Irish education to “a turning point in teaching and learning”, the Minister for Education said at the launch of a public consultation on use of technology in schools.

“ICT (information and computer technology) is not another subject, it is another set of tools,” Mr Ruairí Quinn said yesterday. But while its potential was huge it was important to question what benefits we expected to see coming from use of technology in education.

In its ‘ICT Skills Audit’, the non-profit training promotion agency, Fastrack to IT (FIT), estimates that there are 4,500 vacancies in Ireland’s ICT sector. These are not being filled, because of “the severely limited supply of suitably skilled applicants”. The study, based on a survey of 38 IT multinationals and SMEs, shows that many of the vacancies are at the intermediate-skills level, and could be filled after training programmes of six to 24 months.