* IT skills report reveals the level of knowledge in the rest of the world
We’ve all heard of the term “globalization” and for some IT workers, this perhaps brings up thoughts of offshore outsourcing and the army of programmers in India doing work for U.S. firms. Brainbench’s 2006 Global Skills Report released last month shows that workers in other countries are also shoring up their IT skills, and not just in programming.
Brainbench provides online assessment tests that employees take to help organizations understand the skills level of their workforce. The tools cover a variety of job functions, including sales, call center, finance, and IT, and an individual’s skills are Brainbench-certified if they pass a score. The report analyzes the Brainbench skills data collected from 298,495 individual skills certifications from workers in 217 countries and territories.
Here are some of the IT skills-related findings of the report: * The United States leads the list of top 10 countries in terms of overall certifications, and leads the rest of the world in the number of IT skills areas (16 out of 30 areas) but this figure is smaller than last year’s 24 out of 30 IT skills areas. India is ranked second in overall certification – the ranking it held in 2005 – but it saw a 47% rise in total certifications from last year, compared to a reduction of 18% for the United States.
* India dominates all database development and most programming languages categories (except C#), with the United States maintaining its own domination of the Systems and Network Administration, and Technical Support categories.
* The top 10 IT skills certifications (as related to Brainbench assessments) are: C#, Software Testing, C++, .Net Framework, Computer Technical Support, ASP.Net, RDBMS Concepts, Project Management (2005), Java 2 Fundamentals, Linux Administration.
* In Eastern Europe, the report notes a sustained growth in database programming and administration. C# and C++ were common areas of programming certifications, while Linux Administration and Cisco Network Design were also well-represented in this region, says the report.
* Security is a hot issue with U.S. firms and one-third of U.S.-based workers completed the Brainbench IT Security Fundamentals certification. At the state level, New York led the way in disaster recovery and planning tests.
* Canada declined by 27% from 2005 in total skill certifications. Though placing in the top 5 in both Unix Administration (Solaris 9) and Microsoft Excel 2003 Fundamentals, these represented a fairly small share of the market.
The report concludes with a sobering thought for network and systems management pros: “Currently, the [United States] maintains domination of the systems and network administration job categories. This is understandable given that these functions often require an on-site presence. However, remote network management is a new trend in IT, which may eventually threaten or erode a U.S. lead in these skills areas.”
I’d be interested in your thoughts of this report. Do you agree that the world is smaller and that competition for networking and system management jobs is increasing as IT pros in other countries become skilled in those functions? E-mail me.
