A Maltese e-Skills Demand and Supply Monitor is to be developed by the Malta Information Technology Agency and the research institution INSEAD eLab. The aim of the monitor is to gauge the present and forecasted availability of e-skills and how this matches the anticipated demand from the industry.
Charlò Bonnici, Parliamentary Assistant for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications, who launched the project, said the main goal of this study is to monitor and better understand the evolution of the supply and demand of e-skills in Malta in order to anticipate change and facilitate dialogue between policy makers and leading stakeholders.
Mr Bonnici said: “The launch of such a barometer in Malta means that we will be able to get a clear scenario of the local state of affairs in this area and pin-down the exact gaps and mismatches”. The study will also ensure that Malta will be able to boost the productivity and the employability of its workforce and be able to respond successfully to global competitive challenges, he added.
MITA chairman Claudio Grech said that the availability of e-skills is an important component for the economic development and competitiveness of any country. Mr Grech said that “the picture at a European level is clear but locally we do not have hard empirical facts and figures.”
“Any resulting gaps and/or mismatches will be the focus of targeted investment by the government as part of its current and future human capital programme within the national ICT strategy,” Mr Grech said. Bruno Lanvin, executive director and Nils Fonstad, associate director of INSEAD eLab were also present for the launch.
INSEAD eLab, established in 1957, is one of the leading global institutions in e-Skills data analysis and policy-making. Its partners and clients include the World Economic Forum; World Bank; UNCTAD; ITU; WTO; OECD; the European Commission; and the government of Qatar.
The e-Skills Demand and Supply Monitor will bring together a set of deliverables which mainly tackle components affecting or contributing to the supply and demand of e-skills in Malta.
A mixture of desk and field research will assist in the identification of the current demands among ICT employers from the ICT industry as well as from the ICT-using industry. Both qualitative and quantitative measures will be utilised to establish the current supply in regards to ICT practitioner skills being generated by the various educational institutions. The analysis of these two pillars (demand and supply) will eventually lead towards concrete action to the bridge the existing gaps and mismatches of e-skills.
A crucial focus of the monitor will be its predictive component – where a forecast of the upcoming three years, both in terms of demand as well as the supply of e-skills, will be completed.