Our challenge

Canada’s ICT labour market is under pressure

Not only are many baby boomers on the cusp of retirement (in 2006, nearly 8 per cent of ICT workers were over 55), demand for ICT-related skills is growing, and more and more young people are turning away from ICT-related studies and occupations. For example, between 2002 and 2006, enrolments in undergraduate university computer science programs dropped by 30 per cent; and Canadian universities graduated 2,200 fewer computer scientists, software engineers and applied mathematics majors. The implications for the ICT sector of under-enrolment include significant and growing labour shortages, lost productivity, the underperformance of the sector, and a negative impact on the Canadian economy.

Student skills don’t match with employee demands

The changing character of ICT occupations has intensified the need to ensure that graduates emerge with skills that match employer demand. These demands shifts away from traditional ICT occupations (such as computer programmers) and towards business/ICT specialists, highly specialized ICT areas, and multidisciplinary ICT occupations (such as bioinformatics and industrial design), put increased pressure on educators and the sector to guide interested students into relevant ICT education and career paths.

Women are persistently under-represented in ICT and ICT-related fields

Women account for 46.7 per cent of the Canadian workforce as a whole, yet women accounted for only 25 per cent of all IT occupations in March 2009—the exact same proportion of IT occupations held by women in March 2000.
Pursing higher education in greater numbers, women account for two thirds the full-time enrolment growth in universities since 1971, however the percentage of women enrolling in IT-related programs has been falling for years.

CCICT must create a more accurate picture of ICT careers

ICT professionals are essential to innovation and productivity in every sector of the economy.

ICT is decreasingly about traditional desk-bound programming and increasingly about exciting 21st century careers for professionals who display leadership and drive innovation:

• Business professionals who have the knowledge, skills and personal qualities to lead and support the effective, competitive use of information technologies. The Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity says our lagging productivity has much to do with gaps in these skill sets. In the 12 months to June 2010 – at the height of the recession – jobs in this category grew 30% from a base of 200,000. Employers across Canada can’t find enough people who know how to infuse businesses with technology, and we also face a critical shortage of business-savvy technology entrepreneurs.
• Specialized technologists – both IT-focused and multidisciplinary – at the leading edge of innovation in every field, be it ICT product innovation, digital media, health care and medical research, green infrastructure, or automotive design. Industry-specific ICT-related skills shortages limit the development of many key sectors (e.g., health informatics, power network informatics, intelligent vehicles & transportation systems, advanced manufacturing, digital media, mobile technologies & applications) and the economic performance of the Canadian economy as a whole.