ICT SKILLS FRAMEWORK PROJECT
There is a global shortage of ICT related skills, including cybersecurity.
This has been made more acute by the pace of Digital Transformation, which has itself been accelerated by COVID-19. Educational providers, whether they are Universities, Colleges or private providers are not currently producing enough skilled ICT professionals to meet requirement and this gives rise to a skills gap, which is increasing.
Governments will need to consider how to encourage the provision of both upskilling and reskilling opportunities, if there are to be enough skilled workers available to meet demand and not hold back the Digital Transformation that is occurring.
Unfortunately, without a common means of defining particular ICT skill sets and levels of responsibility, organisations within a particular economy struggle to define ICT roles as well as they could and don’t always recruit the right skills. The skills shortage makes this problem worse.
Sadly also, without proper definitions of ICT skills that are needed, it is difficult for educational providers to know what skills to teach and at what level to teach them. What is needed is an ICT skills framework.
An ICT skills framework defines a set of skills together with different levels of responsibility at which those skills can be exercised. The outcome is a description of the skill at each relevant responsibility level. A skills framework, therefore provides a foundation which, if used by both employers and ICT professionals, leads to a common understanding of skills and responsibilities in ICT.
Within APEC, some economies have adopted a global ICT skills framework, a small number have developed their own and a number have not yet adopted a framework. The most commonly used framework across APEC economies is the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), developed originally in the UK but now in significant global use.
Although adopting an ICT skills framework within an economy helps with mobility within that economy, there is still a wider issue with providing services across the boundaries of economies where the ICT frameworks are different. In effect, different economies mean different things when they potentially use the same words. As an example, an ICT service provider in one economy providing services in another economy could have difficulty in finding a common definition of skillsets and levels to use in describing its employees. In addition, any certifications which were based on its own ICT skills framework might be meaningless in another economy. These difficulties provide barriers to trade and barriers for the mobility of ICT professionals.
This issue can be addressed by establishing a set of generic job roles, which in turn, map to an agreed underlying set of skills at different responsibility levels, within a common recognised framework.
SEARCC has supported PNG in proposing a self-funded project to address this issue and this APEC approved project (ICT Skills Framework Project) is now in its final stages. SEARCC (South East Asian Regional Computer Confederation) is a federation of Associations of ICT professionals from across Asia and the Pacific, whose member associations have significant experience in the use of ICT Skills Frameworks.
The Executive Council of SEARCC (EXCo) is acting as the steering committee for the project and has representatives from the following APEC economies, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Chinese Taipei, New Zealand and Malaysia together with one non-APEC economy, Sri Lanka.
2019-2022
Various APEC Tel and SEARCC workshops and meetings in Asia Pacific region.