>Tech should not be an elusive industry - especially when their is such a huge shortage of skills.
1) If you consider tech to be an elusive industry because of this, would you consider the same for biology, chemistry or other industries/sciences that require a degree to effectively get a job in the field? Why is there no counterparts to "learn to code" for those fields?
2) Is there really a shortage of skills in the software development industry in comparison to other fields?
2) Is there really a shortage of skills in the software development industry in comparison to other fields?
A shortage of skills is often the interpretation people get (or at least voice publicly) when they think labor costs are too high.
e: Not that I'm arguing that it's the case (or the alternate). You'll run into business politics, politics politics, lies, lies people tell themselves, and statistics before getting any actual insight on the issue.
The only convincing argument I've heard is that wages aren't increasing to match the reported demand. Which doesn't indicate anything directly. It suggests sufficient labor pools but rests on the assumption that if there are insufficient talent pools employers would pay more to attract talent.
Do you have a link or resource for that argument you mention in the last line? I'd actually be really interested in digging into what that means.
The industry always calls it a "skills gap" (guilty as charged here), but our developing theory is that its an gap in education. Not privatized business-like education like ours, but in the core standard of education. In Europe certainly this is the more relevant discussion anyway as mandates are falling into place in the UK and other countries that enforce children to gain a rudimentary understanding of code through their traditional schooling. We're actually working really hard to help with this effort with a CPD for teaching teachers that we just launched. Yes its a savvy business move, but I'm really excited that we're trying to approach what we feel is actually the core issue.
Let me know if you have a resource for that argument, and let me know your thoughts on my comment!
I'm going to vote for a simple answer on this. We don't have enough solid talent because there simply isn't a high enough saturation of learning opportunities. not even on the most basic levels. Higher ed CS degrees don't train you up to work in the million and one startups that are looking for engineers of all levels.
You might argue that in the tech scene (those of us in locations where it exists and is prominent + we pay attention to the news because we're in it) its VERY saturated. But your examples of other industries are those that have been standardized by higher ed. Apart from MBA's and (for the most part agency-focused which don't teach you much about modern digital tactics) marketing degrees, the start up industry, even to some extent the tech industry, lacks the educational infrastructure that fields like the sciences do.
If it was on that level, businesses like the bootcamps wouldn't exist. Is it a problem that should be fixed? Yes, but bootcamps are the current solution. Some of them ::cough::careerfoundry::cough:: are rapidly working to help with the efforts of bringing things like teaching code to schools. Yes its a good business play, but it builds awareness around the problem at its core rather than creating a business to capitalize on it... which is what we do now.... obviously.
1) If you consider tech to be an elusive industry because of this, would you consider the same for biology, chemistry or other industries/sciences that require a degree to effectively get a job in the field? Why is there no counterparts to "learn to code" for those fields?
2) Is there really a shortage of skills in the software development industry in comparison to other fields?