Addressing the Skills GapBy

Prof. Ali El Hajj

American University of Beirut

May 2017

Content

• Background

• Digital Skills: Issues and Challenges

• Addressing the Skill Gaps

• Recommendations

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Background

• Skills Gap

• Digital Divide

• Digital and Experts Skills

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Introducing the Skill Gap

• A Skill Gap is the difference between the skills needed for a job or task and the skills possessed by the available workforce.

• Digital Government requires Digital skills at different levels.

• “Digital” is more than just technology, websites, internet –it requires operating models, designed around users and data.

• Digital skills are often cited as lacking or in shortage.4

Levels of Digital Skills

• Basic Digital Literacy Skills: Needed by every citizen to carry out basic IT functions like using social media, making internet searches, etc.

• General Digital Skills for the Workforce: Include skills needed to use IT applications such as processing information, e-commerce, etc.

• Professional Digital Skills: Include skills needed by IT professionals to work in the IT sector such as the development of new digital technologies, and new products and services.

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The Citizens Case: Digital Divide

E-government services face barriers due to digital divide among citizens. This divide has two elements:

• Access Divide:

• Access to the Internet: prerequisite for e-government use.

• Age and education: main predictors of technology access.

• Skill Divide:

• Technical competence: skills to operate hardware and software tools.

• Information literacy: effectively locate, evaluate, use and communicate information from different resources.

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Digital Skills for Digital Government

• Experts with knowledge of public sector requirements.

• IT experts within the public and/or private sector for

evolving the new IT system.

• Capacities within the public sector (Ministry) to manage the

new IT system.

• IT skills among clerical staff in the public sector.

• Basic IT skills among users of digital government services.

Users include citizens, public and private sectors.7

Examples of Experts Skills

• Data Scientists and Statisticians: provide needed expertise

to analyze and predict data and to drive strategic decisions.

• Database Administrators: ensure that data is collected,

stored securely and used in compliant manner.

• Big Data Analysts: capabilities needed to turn collected

data into business intelligence.

• Business Intelligence Analysts: provide data mining,

cleansing and reporting skills to support business decisions

and yield quantifiable return on investments.8

Examples of Expert Skills (Continued)

• Computer Systems Analysts: needed to design systems

and processes that combine technology expertise with the

organization’s business strategies.

• IT Architects: manage the security architecture and ensure

compliance with rules and regulations.

• Digital transformation combines people, processes and

technology, in addition to change management skills that

will enable having a truly digital organization

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Digital Skills:

Issues and Challenges

• Challenges

• Digital Skills Survey

• Public Sector

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Challenges of Digital Skills

• IT experts require high salaries, and governments

cannot compete with the private sector.

• The shortage and brain drain of digital skills is a

critical issue.

• There is a digital skills gap across industries that

aggravates the government’s situation.

• There is a need to better invest in digital skills.

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Digital Skills Survey:

Leadership

Digital Skills Survey by Government Digital Leaders, National Audit Office, UK:

• There are not many Digital and Technology (DaT) leaders in place.

• Most of those in place have not been long in post.

• A significant proportion have good private sector experience, but do not have public sector experience.

• There is reasonable penetration on boards, less at main board.

• DaT is typically a small proportion of overall workforce.12

Digital Skills Survey:

Skills Gap

• Estimates of the gap show shortfalls across all areas.

• Most organizations need to improve capacity and capability in key technical areas.

• Effectiveness of approaches to developing capability – learning from colleagues preferred to formal training.

• Use of consultants expected to decline in the next 5 years –with more use of partnering.

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Digital Skills Survey:

Barriers and Challenges

• Financial position and budgets, career paths and competing

priorities have the largest negative impacts on developing

existing staff.

• Market conditions, pay and recruiting processes have the

largest negative impacts on recruitment and retention.

• Procurement processes have the largest negative impact on

obtaining external resources.

• Funding and pay seen as biggest challenges to developing

capability and capacity.14

Digital Skills Survey:

Key Findings

• Most initiatives by the strategic center of government are regarded as helpful or very helpful.

• A greater role for the center is envisaged in coordinating and facilitating as well as supporting skills development.

• Central guidance is mostly considered to be relevant and mostly adhered to.

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Public Sector Challenges

• E-Government services should be accessible to all citizens

regardless of age or digital skills level.

• Resistance to change of long serving employees who are

used to paper-based processes.

• Transformation is a gradual process because changing

work processes takes time and should be done right.

• Working with trusted partners who have sector expertise

will help build the digital skills needed for successful

transformation.16

Addressing the Skill Gap

• Training Staff

• Role of Higher Education

• Digital Talent Management

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Training Senior Staff for e-

government

• Training for Individual Level Skills.

• Training in e-Government Management Knowledge.

• Training in e-Government Management Skills.

• Developing Leadership Quality for Managing ICT and e-government.

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Training for Individual Level Skills

• MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, …)

• Internet (Browsing, download and save

documents, fill a form and upload

documents, website development, …)

• Smart devices, mobile phones, …

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Training in e-Government

Management Knowledge

• This is the essential knowledge of e-government

management in organizational level

• Concept of e-government

• Networked government

• MIS and data based decision making

• Managing intranet and web portal

• Business process reengineering

• Knowledge in ICT project management

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Training Need in e-Government

Management Skill

• Training needs in the below skills:

• Skills in using MIS and database in decision making

• Using e-Procurement for procuring goods and services for the organization

• Working in an automated office

• Re-engineering business process in own organization due to ICT introduction

• Providing e-Service for the citizen

• Using and providing interactive intranet for the clients of the organization

• Managing ICT projects

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Developing Leadership Quality for

Managing ICT and e-government

• Skills and knowledge in transparency

• Knowledge in managing ICT and change

management

• Managerial skills in business process re-

engineering

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Advancing Digital Literacy in

Education: Issues and Challenges

• Student Orientation: There is a lack of awareness of career

opportunities within the digital sector.

• There is no enough support for students with their decision-

making around career and skills development.

• Even though digital skills development is integrated in school

curricula, the digital skills level is variable and inconsistent.

• While IT is used in schools, we need to ensure that it is

effectively used in teaching and learning.

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Advancing Digital Literacy in

Education: Teaching and Learning

• Change the curricula to address cognitive, social, and behavioral as well as technical and critical thinking skills.

• Digitization of the learning process by using smart boards and tablets and having blended or online courses/programs.

• Transition of learning content to the cloud.

• Focus on students as producers and makers, not only knowledge consumers.

• Launch digital literacy programs targeted to specific groups such as the elderly and underprivileged.

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Advancing Digital Literacy Across

Higher Education:

Collaborations and Partnerships

• Collaboration between the private sector and schools/universities to shape the digital curricula and become part of the advisory boards.

• Business partnerships with companies to ensure that the digital curriculum is aligned with market demand and available job vacancies.

• Develop Smart Collaborations: Governments, Campuses, and Organizations must collaborate together in different projects, from information-sharing initiatives to developing joint IT projects.

• The supply of needed digital skills is mainly through education and training delivered by education institutions.

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Digital Talent:

Attracting, Building and Retaining

• Government must have a suitable working environment to attract global experts and high-skilled IT professionals.

• Companies need to attract and build digital capabilities in-house. Work with an external vendor to build the solution, operate with adjustments, and then transfer capabilities for the owner to run independently.

• Adjust policies to encourage digital talent to join local firms. For example, modifying the visa policy could help lower the barrier to attracting talent.

• Assessing digital skills of applicants/employees is challenging.26

Digital Talent:

Management

Companies should develop a 360-degree talent management

approach from attraction, onboarding, and training to retention.

• At the attraction level, companies should have a compelling vision.

• At the onboarding and training level, invest in continuous learning

and professional development for employees.

• At the retention level, use predictive analytics to identify the

employees who are most likely to leave.

• A digital talent platform must be properly set.

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Recommendations

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Recommendations to

Education Sector

The education sector should develop and adapt their offers

to meet the changing needs of the digital economy.

• Coordinate with stakeholders to ensure that the offered educational

courses/programs meet the demand for digital skills.

• Build digital skills capacity with industry-relevance: Computing-related

degrees should equip people with skills needed to be effective workers.

• Motivate and inspire young people to consider digital careers.

• Implement programs to continually update the digital skills of their staff.

• Support teachers to deliver the new computing curriculum and develop

their teaching approaches in line with developing educational technology. 29

Recommendations to

Government

Government should provide leadership, coordination, and key resources in establishing the conditions for digital skills development.

• Ensure that digital skills are learned pervasively at all stages of education and training.

• Focus education policy on skills of strategic importance to the nation.

• The government should work with the industry to understand which digital skills are of particular strategic importance to the nation.

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Recommendations to

Employers

Employers take ownership of digital skills development

• Collaborate at a national level. Employers should collaborate, through

networks and partnerships, to develop approaches to raising digital skills levels.

• Lead on setting standards. Employers should set the minimum standards that

individuals are expected to acquire through education and training.

• Build the skills of their own employees. Employers should ensure existing

staff have the training to keep their digital skills updated, and develop active

recruitment and development strategies to maximize digital skills of their workforce.

• Foster lifelong learning. Employers should help embed a culture which

recognizes and builds on the talents of their employees, actively supporting their

learning through a wide range of learning approaches. 31

Recommendations on

CollaborationLocal and regional governments and organizations should address the digital skills needs of their local areas:

• Collaborate: Local partnerships and networks (Universities and employers) should work together to determine the skills needs, so that education and training provision is better matched to demand. Government must encourage these partnerships to share best practice and knowledge of successful programs and training schemes.

• Inform: Universities and Employers should ensure that relevant and focused information is made available about digital skills training and education provision.

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References

• Digital Skills for the UK Economy, ECORYS UK, Jan 2016

• Digital Literacy, An NMC Horizon Project Strategic Brief, Oct. 2016

• Digital Middle East: Transforming the region into a leading digital economy, Digital

McKinsey, Oct. 2016

• Digital Transformation Skills for Government and How Public Sector Organizations can

acquire them, Microsoft.

• The digital skills gap in government, Survey Findings, National Audit Office (UK),

December 2015

• Training Curriculum on E-Government: An Empirical Study on Senior Civil Servants of

Bangladesh, Md. Zohurul Islam, Md. Abdul Mannan, International Journal of Advances in

Management and Economics, 2014

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