The educational gap between skills demanded by IoT companies and practical knowledge of workforce could endanger the expected growth of the market.
Only 120 students out of 1,200 worldwide participants were capable to finish the first edition of the free online educational program that Libelium, an IoT solutions company, promotes to find the best future developers.
The best well-known research companies are continuously publishing reports with estimates and forecasts on the burgeoning IoT market, including device growth, amount invested and potential return on investment. But there is an important reality that only a few warn: the educational gap and practical knowledge absence to cover the workforce needed to develop IoT solutions.
The last Business Insider Intelligence report (July 2016) forecasts that there will be 34 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020, and Gartner predicted in the symposium held six months ago that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015.
Moreover, IoT devices will account for 24 billion by 2020, while traditional computing devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches) will comprise 10 billion. They also states that nearly $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years.
Current students must select their degrees knowing that around 4,5 million IoT developer positions will be required in the next years and technology progresses so fast that demand is growing daily. In fact, 26% of European companies do not find the right profiles for their vacant positions. The Internet of Things market opens a new opportunity for electronic and computing engineers.
The fact is that today only 10 percent of the 1,200 student participants in our program have been able to finish the first edition of The IoT Spartans Challenge, the online educational program that Libelium launched to find the best IoT developers among worldwide engineering universities and technical schools. Twelve universities engaged with the challenge and we expected to have at least 300 finalists, but the reality shows that students are not prepared to follow the practical lessons in IoT development and less than 50 percent finished the challenge.
Due to the increasing demand for IoT solutions and the leadership of the company, the Libelium workforce grows 30 percent per year and the aim of this training program is to cover the gap between the skills demanded by IoT companies and the practical knowledge of future developers.
Courtesy of Libelium
The webinars and exams are based on the practical development that our staff does every day. There were three individual winners, one each from Italy (Emanuele Goldoni), Tunisia (Khaled Brahem) and Spain (Sergio López). All of them have learned specific IoT knowledge that will enable help extend their technical educations, improve job skills and prepare for a professional career in IoT world.
However, its promising future can be further guaranteed only if we all help to ensure it. For this reason, the Education team at Libelium is already preparing the second edition of The IoT Spartans Challenge set to start in January 2017.
We thing there should be a shared commitment for corporate and social responsibility between governments, educational institutions and private companies to reinforce employment opportunities for future generations. The more “Spartans” we have for the future, the greater the IoT market will be and the faster it will reach our companies and lives.
Edited by
Ken Briodagh
