Check out our "2018 State of IT Training" to access the trends for the IT sector

Our latest study conducted by New Horizons Corporation found that IT training is still a challenge for a lot of companies. The lack of qualified IT pros will make a huge impact on the growth of those companies. The 2018 State of IT Training Report shows that 40% of employees who receive little or poor training leave their positions within the first year. As a result, employee turnover costs companies 20% of that person’s yearly salary, which means a huge impact on productivity and innovation.

It's proven that a well-established development program can result in staff retention and attract new talent, resulting in less turnover and less investment in constant hiring expenses. But as the study demonstrates, the reality is only 12% of the interviewed enterprises believe their IT training strategy is effective, which means that 88% of the group is not happy with their IT training program. A number that surprises, as innovation and technology walk hand in hand.

Looking ahead, as more businesses are facing the pressure to adopt complex technologies such as AI, cybersecurity and big data, which in turn creates a need for employees with these skills to ensure continuous growth. The data below highlights the main findings with the purpose of helping businesses in the journey of developing a better strategy for dealing with daily IT challenges.

Report Highlights

How Companies Manage IT

Most of the interviewed companies have IT in-house teams, or use a blend of outsourcing and in-house resources, as the graph below shows. That’s a good sign as the businesses are looking to retain the knowledge and build competitive IT teams. In this context training is even more important, as technology moves fast.

The Training Gap

The necessity of IT Pros is not something new in the market, all over the world, IT job postings are the most popular and the list of vacancies growing all the time. According to Code.org, by 2020 the professional gap will increase even more, reaching 1 million IT vacancies exceeding the number of applicants.

To overcome the skills gap, the obvisous solution is to invest in staff training. Businesses that don’t make an effort to train and re-train their IT workforce will face constant talent shortages. Only 11% of the respondents believe that their training program is aligned with the business goals and technology needs. Which results in 89% of the interviewed companies aware that they are facing a huge gap regarding to their technical training investment.   

IT Training Challenges

As shown in the image above cost still a challenge for most of the companies, following by the time necessary to invest in professional development and courses.

Top IT Priorities in 2018 and Beyond

It is no surprise Cybersecurity solutions and cloud computing are leading the race. Both have been on trend topics for a while now. Despite the speculation that AI would beat them, the reality is that with the increase of security threats, cybersecurity is dominating the budgets and will require more qualified professionals. Therefore, high end training will be required to help these professionals to deliver what their companies need and expected from them.

Technology Pipeline for 2018 and Next Years

According to our report Cybersecurity and Cisco are the main technologies that businesses are seeking to aquire in 2018, followed by VMware and Microsoft Office. Once again reflecting the need for highly qualified and certified IT pros.

According to Alan Deery, Director, New Horizons Ireland, well trained staff can play a key role in future proofing conpanies. “Is not just valuable from the talent retention perspective, but also something essential to develop and grow your enterprise. Doesn’t matter the field of work of your company, IT is an important element to keep your profitability and growing in the upcoming years”, stated Deery.

Closing the Gap

The best way to close the IT gap training is to invest in getting your team qualified. At New Horizons Ireland we run a wide range of IT technical courses in our monthly schedule. We can send our instructors to your premises or you can attend at our Dublin classrooms.

All Technical list courses

See full report