Human capital in ICT: The long but vital road ahead

What is the first thing which comes to mind with information and communication technology? Computers, of course, but that is not the major worry for Peter Xuereb, the head of a new unit at the Malta Information Technology Agency.

Dr Xuereb is the chief officer for the so-called 'human capital' at MITA. He's no run-of-the-mill human resources manager for the agency. He is the man entrusted with the national drive to have the necessary human resources in Malta to feed the thriving ICT industry and other sectors requiring ICT skills, as explained in the government's Vision 2015, the Smart Island Vision and MITA's own strategic plan.

"Human capital in this area is pretty much a 'make or break' matter. Without the necessary skilled people to support the ICT sector, government would not be successful in creating a thriving ICT industry," Dr Xuereb explained in an exclusive interview. "ICT is a key enabler in virtually every industry today and it takes more than merely investing in one particular sector. By strengthening the ICT sector as a whole, you can strengthen the whole economy."

Dr Xuereb has taken this post at MITA after several years working abroad. He holds graduate and post-graduate degrees in ICT from UK universities and has worked with major companies such as HP and Spatial Corp., a US company owned by the Paris-based Dassault Systems. He also worked with MSU, one of the forerunners of MITA.

He is very well aware of the uphill struggle ahead. Despite all the government's commitment, success in recent years and national awareness of the importance of ICT, are we doing enough?

"To me enough is only when supply starts meeting demand. And we are a long way from that. This does not mean we are not investing enough. We need to continue investing and at a greater rate. The return on investment has been pretty high. Money has been very well spent and I see no reason not to continue, or indeed increase, investment in this regard."

Theoretical ICT skills must also be supported by practical, real-life work experiences. Recently it was announced that only one-fifth of applications submitted in the latest call for the Student Placement Programme, run by MITA to provide summer work for ICT students, could be met. There were not enough placements from industry.

"It's a shame that not every single student who applied could be placed. Industry can afford to take many more students than it does. Students have a lot of creativity and energy which if harnessed well, can do a lot for you."

Dr Xuereb's mix of local and foreign experience puts him in an advantageous position to compare the Maltese ICT skills with those abroad.

"The similarities are that there are deficiencies in both cases. There are large gaps between the demand side and the supply side. The gap in Europe is projected to grow, and funnily enough the more we focus and invest in this important sector, the more the gap will grow. This is similar to Malta. We really have to inject a great deal of investment in human capital to try to narrow this gap.

"One of the differences is that abroad mobility is much greater. Maltese people don't change jobs or leave the island that frequently, whereas in other countries you typically leave home when you go to university, go to another town and find a job there. Some people have the impression that if you go abroad for work it's like going on holiday. It's not like that at all.

"The Maltese are also very friendly generally speaking. And I think that in the ICT sector, this is a big advantage because the Maltese are naturally quite open and communicative."

"Also the spectrum of backgrounds and skills you find abroad is richer. It is not that the skills level is higher than in Malta, but you can find skills that you would not find here, due to our population size" Dr Xuereb explained.

MITA's strategic plan for 2009-2012 mentions 82 different initiatives, 25 concerned with human capital.

"When you put all the human capital initiatives together you can aggregate these into five strategic thrusts, two top-down, two bottom-up, and one which is meant to govern the whole process. On the top-down side, in terms of human capital, the objective is to enable the development of an ICT cluster in Malta. We are working on a cluster framework which could then be applied and used for any type of cluster.

"The second top-down objective is to bridge the e-skills gap. We want to be able to forecast what skills we're going to need to best support this industry and enable the supply-side to deliver precisely those skills. In practice this is very hard. Technology is changing all the time and we can't forecast for 10 years in the future - forget it. Probably the furthest we can look down the road is three to four years. So to do this we will be developing a demand-supply monitor, and undertaking other supporting initiatives that go hand-in-hand with this, such as the development of an e-competence framework that will enable us to all use the same language when we are discussing what skills and what jobs are going to be required in the future.

"The two bottom-up initiatives are the strengthening of all the educational supply pillars, like the ICT institute at MCAST, for instance, the ICT faculty at the University of Malta, the private training providers and even overseas institutions to help them strengthen their presence here, and to put together programmes that enable individual citizens to take the initiative to strengthen themselves in this field.

"Then finally we need governance processes around everything, both to provide accreditation mechanisms as well as regulation of the profession. By putting these in place, we will be able to develop various standards, codes of ethics, codes of practice and similar mechanisms to ensure professionalism. In this way, we will have a finger on the pulse of the quality of skills out there and we will be able to influence this in a positive way."

Some of these initiatives, such as the National ICT e-Skills Alliance and the ICT Professional Body, have already been mentioned in public and MITA is already working on their implementation. However, some industry observers say all these new bodies could be overlapping and lead to unnecessary repetition.

Dr Xuereb begs to differ.

"By having key people on board we won't be duplicating efforts - on the contrary, this will ensure that we leverage whatever we can that has been done in the past. Also we will not duplicate structures because both the e-Skills Alliance and the ICT Professional Body don't actually have an equivalent at the moment - so both of them are something of an innovation. The purpose of the e-Skills Alliance is to act as a think-tank focused on the development of human capital in Malta. The idea is to bring industry, academia, and various other stakeholders together to be able to focus on all the issues necessary to develop local human capital in this sector to the best of our collective ability. To us, these are partners - a partnership which goes far beyond consultation.

"I see a deep commitment when I talk to them and am very encouraged by their participation, input and feedback. MITA will set up a small team to do the legwork for these two bodies and provide the necessary horsepower, but eventually they should spin out as independent bodies."