Setting the stage for a relevant Software Skills Strategy

Our software skills need analysis is in the final stage of completion. All the data is collected and we are in the process of analysing and synthesising these data to provide insights into the current and future needs of organisations with demand in software skills. The report will be finalised this summer and presented in September.

The ESSA software skills need analysis is the foundation of the future Software Skills Strategy for Europe. The analysis provides insights into the gap between the current and especially future market demand for, and supply of, software skills through educational programmes and training. To fill this gap the Software Skills Strategy will be aimed at a future supply that matches the growing demand for software skills.

The need analysis at a glance

The need analysis is composed of four elements:

• Current demand for software roles and skills

The current demand for people in software roles and the skills they need is studied by performing a literature review, collecting and analysing job market reports and databases, collecting and analysing job vacancies, and conducting a questionnaire. The literature review identified the most important scientific papers on the developments in software roles and skills. Over 300 respondents from organisations in Europe with software skills needs, like programming skills, filled out the questionnaire and provided valuable data. Over 900 job vacancies from all over the EU were curated and analysed to find out what is the demand for specific software skills at the moment. Over 60, national and European labour market reports and 20 databases from countries across Europe were collected and analysed to understand the latest labour market developments in the area of software skills.

• Future demand for software roles and skills

Besides desk research on literature and reports on forecasts on software skills needs, the most important input about the future demand of software skills comes from expert groups. 13 national expert groups were held and about 110 experts, in the field of software skills (labour) market, provided input. Also, a European expert group was formed to validate the conclusions of the national expert groups and identify the trends that are relevant on an EU scale.

• Current supply of software skills

A similar methodology, i.e., desk research on literature and reports, was used to study the current supply and extra data was collected to map out education providers in the EU Member States and, at a more detailed level, analyse the content of the largest educational programmes related to software skills on upper-secondary and tertiary VET level.

• Gap analysis

With all the data collected, from these multiple sources, we can establish what is the gap between current and future demand and the current supply of software skills. The conclusions of this analysis will be the starting point for the formulation of a new Software Skills Strategy for Europe.

We will share the outcomes of the study with you in September. Stay tuned!

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