First edition of our column.

One of the findings of our IT Skills Study 2009 was the fact that IT professionals don’t need superior soft skills. An article in CIO now reveals a growing backlash against the soft skills fashion. Many IT professionals even think of soft skills as a “guise for technical incompetence”. We believe this is going too far.

Our IT Skills Study 2010 pinpoints a high demand for IT experts with analytical, modelling and project management skills. This confirms the increased importance of IT / business alignment and the sharper focus on business needs. Software implementation and service management, on the other hand, are perceived as future objects for outsourcing and offshoring.

Denise Dubei confirms this trend in her article for networkworld.com in which she reports a rising demand for IT experts who can identify areas suitable for outsourcing, negotiate deals with outsourcers and contractors and manage external project teams.

In an attempt to avert the threat of a skills shortage and meet the ever more acute need for digital literacy, the EU Commission has announced an ”E-Skills Week 2010“, running almost parallel to the CeBIT fair from March 1 to 5. The lack of basic e-Skills is meanwhile endangering sustainable growth within the EU.

More information on all this can be found here.

e-Skills is currently a very hot topic, and even MI5 – the UK’s national security intelligence agency – is examining ways to improve the below-average IT skills of older agents.

It is a challenge that we, too, intend to take up by producing an assessment that is tailor-made for Ms. Moneypenny and offering an individual training plan.