IT Qualifications to Train for Now

The New Skills for Information Technology Careers and Management

Jun 14, 2009

While many IT professionals saw their jobs disappear or move offshore in the last decade, with the right skills a technology career is still an excellent choice.

A number of consulting reports on the future of information technology have been completed in the last year. The findings of these reports are a source of optimism for the IT professional. Global Knowledge Inc. has summarized the findings of these reports in a white paper that lists the top skills needed for a technology career.

IT Skills Most in Demand

The top three technology skills being sought by employers right now are, Virtualization, Web 2.0 skills and Networking and Windows Administration. Demand for people with any of these three IT qualifications have been growing despite a slump in IT jobs.

In descending order, the other qualifications much in demand for IT professionals are:

Business skills, such as interpersonal and communication skills, strategic thinking and project management ability, are on the list because today’s employers are seeking individuals who can understand company objectives and direct their efforts into supporting the company’s goals.

For IT professionals or those seeking IT jobs, these are the skills that will almost guarantee employment and job security.

IT Skills Least in Demand

Another white paper by Global Knowledge lists the 10 dying IT skills. These are knowledge and skills that are passing because of technology advances or lack of global demand for IT professionals with these skills.

COBAL continues to be on the list of dying skills, even though IBM estimates that 70% of the world’s business data is processed with COBAL applications. Companies are often hard pressed to find staff to support these applications. Yet, the push is on to replace COBAL driven applications with faster and more flexible ones.

Similarly HTML is on the dying list, despite the continuing popularity of Internet applications. The authors cite the proliferation of WYSIWYG editors as the reasoning for including HTML on the list. Jobs for professional web developers are still high, but the developer must be an expert in, among others, Java, AJAX, C++ and .Net.

While jobs do continue to exist for people with the skills on this list, the white paper's author warns that changes to a company’s technology plan can make the IT professional, whose expertise lies in these areas, obsolete. For technology professionals who rely on these skills, now is the time to get some skill training and upgrade IT qualifications to stay on top of the profession.

The copyright of the article IT Qualifications to Train for Now in Training/Professional Development is owned by Marianne Lepa. Permission to republish IT Qualifications to Train for Now in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.