Essential Professional Skills and Competencies for Future Information Technology Graduates: Meeting IT Industry Demands

As per the World Economic Forum, there are now two significant obstacles faced by organizations: the challenge of attracting suitable talents and the presence of a skills gap among recruited personnel. Over the next five years, industries across all sectors anticipate that 44% of employee skills will be impacted by technological improvements and business technology adoption. Therefore, it is crucial that graduates entering the workforce possess the necessary skills and competencies for the future. Prior research indicates that there are clearly identifiable skill sets for Information Technology (IT) professionals, and it is evident that the number of skills is consistently increasing over time. Therefore, it is vital for graduates, industry, and IT academics to comprehend the actual need for the skills and competencies of IT professionals. This knowledge will enable them to better equip their graduates with the necessary skills to meet the demands of the real-world business environment. This study examines the industry's expected skills and competencies for IT graduates. To determine the industry-required professional skills and competencies, IT job advertisements posted on online job portals were used and analyzed using Reflexive thematic analysis (RTA). Overall, 222 job advertisements were collected and analyzed, resulting in the identification of 136 distinctive skills. The findings reveal that professional skills may evolve over time, especially when future job advertisements are analyzed. Additionally, the IT industry recognizes that academic achievement should not be the sole criterion for selecting a competent IT professional. Instead, professional skills and competencies are considered equally important. The identified skills were classified into four competencies: 1) strategic thinking and cognitive agility, 2) workplace agility and performance excellence, 3) adaptive resilience, and 4) technical proficiency. This indicates that future IT professionals must possess the capacity to adapt to the constantly evolving needs for professional skills and competencies in the IT industry and swiftly acquire new skills as needed by the IT industry in the future.

I. Introduction

In a rapidly evolving industry like Information Technology, it is impractical to anticipate that things would stay unchanged in the next three to four years. The field has changed dramatically and very quickly in recent years and is likely to continue to do so with the advancement of technology. Significant advancements included cloud computing, machine learning, data analytics, cyber security, Internet of Things (IoT), and most recently generative Artificial Intelligence. A main concern that has emerged from these technological breakthroughs is whether automation and technology may supplant employment opportunities [2]. Even as IT professionals, every university graduate will eventually ask the same question when entering the workforce. It was suggested that machines should be used for tasks that are repetitive, crucial, and labour-intensive [3]. Conversely, professionals in the field of IT should actively participate in tasks that need creative, innovative, and critical thinking skills [3]–[5].