Why investment in Blockchain training makes sense

When tech firm PO8 and the Caribbean Blockchain Alliance (CBA) announced they were running a blockchain internship to find five coders who would intern with PO8 in the Bahamas, it was just one of a range of strategies that the sector were investigating to help address the skills needs of an increasingly sought-after industry. As demand for blockchain continues to grow, particularly in the financial services sector, the need for appropriate skills has highlighted the skills gap in this area. Companies and government institutions are looking for innovative ways to address the training needs to ensure that the right skills are available to tackle the deployment of blockchain in a variety of different ways.

Differing needs, Differing sectors

Matt Barclay, product director at Global Knowledge, a company that trains over 300,000 students a year worldwide, including those developing skills needed to use blockchain, says: "Globally, the technology investment area where IT decision-makers see the biggest skills gap is blockchain and, according to our survey, it is also the area where CIOs and IT directors believe their teams are the weakest."

Global Knowledge is the company behind the annual IT Skills and Salary Survey, a worldwide report on IT staff and decision-maker trends. Barclay sees a scarcity of learning resources as a key issue that has resulted in a skills shortage and a high premium for much in-demand blockchain skills.
"Unfortunately, skills development in this area has not kept up with demand and that was initially hindered by a lack of understanding about the technology and the secrecy which seemed to surround the technology," he says. He adds that there were minimal available resources for professionals, particularly developers, to learn more about blockchain and this led to an increase in the fees charged by those in the know.

"However, that has changed over the last couple of years with online, virtual courses, instructor-led courses and workshops appearing at an impressive rate. There is still a way to go before the gap between supply and demand for blockchain professionals shrinks and this currently places blockchain developers among some of the highest paid developers in any professional field," Barclay says.

Source: Press coverage with IDG Connect – read full article.