31% in 2016. These decision-makers are highly
motivated to solve this issue quickly, with 76%
saying that skills gaps pose a high or medium risk
to business objectives.
1
Further, IDC projects that
worldwide losses due to IT skills gaps will soon
total $390 billion annually.
2
How does this translate into an opportunity
for developers and data scientists? The Global
Knowledge report found that organizations
are increasingly valuing the capabilities and job
satisfaction of their IT teams. When asked to cite
the impacts of IT skills gaps on their businesses,
the #1 most common response was "increased
stress on existing employees"—ranking well
ahead of more bottom-line concerns like
"decreased ability to meet business objectives"
(#4) and "increased operating costs" (#8).
By improving their machine learning skills,
developers and current or aspiring data scientists
can accelerate or expand their careers, provide
more value to their organizations, and increase
their teams' standing. Much of this can be
achieved by transforming the growing IT skills
gap—the separation between the capabilities
of advanced technologies and the abilities of
internal teams to fully capitalize on them—into
an opportunity.
Understanding how developers and data
scientists can leverage the IT skills gap to benefit
their careers first requires an overview of the
severity of the gap and its implications. According
to the Global Knowledge 2019 IT Skills and
Salary Report, 79% of IT decision-makers say
their teams lack necessary skills—up from just
2
Why is building machine learning skills
a golden opportunity for developers
and data scientists?
