The National Computer Board (NCB) will launch the IT Manpower & Skills Inventory Survey 1995 on 1 July 95. This is the first time that a survey is conducted to capture the national IT skills profile in Singapore. It is also believed to ...
Singapore, 3 July 1995 | For Immediate Release
The National Computer Board (NCB) will launch the IT Manpower & Skills Inventory Survey 1995 on 1 July 95. This is the first time that a survey is conducted to capture the national IT skills profile in Singapore. It is also believed to be the world's first survey to capture IT skills profile on a nation-wide scale.
About 3,000 organisations and 10,000 IT professionals in the public and private sectors will be surveyed. The organisations consist of IT vendors and end-user organisations with IT departments. The sectors include construction, transportation, publishing, education, manufacturing, tourism, finance, etc.
There are about 20,000 IT professionals in Singapore. Technology is advancing so rapidly that the skills IT professionals have today may become obsolete soon. There is a need to determine whether the existing IT professionals are equipped for the challenges ahead and how they can constantly keep abreast with the technology changes through training and retraining.
Besides monitoring the manpower supply and requirements for the next three years, the survey will also be used to identify skills shortage and surplus, and help formulate strategies to resolve any skills mismatch. The NCB is devising new incentives to meet the training and retraining needs of IT professionals. This includes developing retraining programmes for the IT professionals to acquire new skills and enhance existing skills, as well as modifying the curricula for entry-level IT professionals at IT training institutions.
The survey consists of two questionnaires:
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The organisation questionnaire will capture the manpower skills requirements of the organisation and the major issues that it faces. This questionnaire will be completed by the Chief Information Officer or a senior IT manager of the organisation.
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The IT professional questionnaire will capture the individual skills profile of the IT professionals in the organisation. This questionnaire will be completed by all IT staff in the organisation.
In order to ensure that the new strategies and incentives address the needs of most organisations and IT professionals, the NCB intends to survey as many organisations as possible. For each participating organisation in the IT professional survey, the NCB will tailor a benchmark report which compares the skills and attitudes of the IT professionals in that organisation against the national norm. Organisations interested in participating in the survey are welcome to contact the NCB for the questionnaires.
The NCB has engaged a 4-member project team from the National University of Singapore Faculty of Business Administration as the consultant for the survey. The team is led by Dr Lawrence Loh, Director, Productivity & Quality Research Centre and Dr Wong Poh Kam, Director, Centre for Management of Technology.
The survey is supported by:
- Data Processing Management Association, DPMA
- Microcomputer Trade Association (Singapore), MTAS
- Singapore Computer Society, SCS
- Singapore Federation of the Computer Industry, SFCI
- Society of Information Managers, SIM
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