Covid19 has increased the need for IT- and tech skills in many industries. Professionals with skills in programming are especially attractive.

- We had a record number of jobs in IT- and technology listed in March, and the trend has continued in April and May. The demand for people with IT skills is big, said Christian Ringvold, product director at Finn Job, the biggest job search website in Norway.

He explains that this is not only a Norwegian trend. LinkedIn has 670.000 developer jobs listed worldwide. A lot of them can be done remotely, meaning a skilled programmer has opportunities across both borders and oceans.

- IT professionals have a lot of opportunities today, and people with IT skills are hot property in the job market.

Christopher Ringvold. Photo: Finn.no

 

The catalyst for change

The pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation in most industries. As a result, the need for employees skilled in IT and technology has increased rapidly.

- What we are experiencing now is an explosion in demand for IT skills, and there is a lack of people to meet the demand, said Ringvold.

- Covid 19, lockdown, and working from home have been a catalyst for digitalization in most industries. We have seen an increase in demand for IT skills over several years, but it has skyrocketed over the past few months.

Even though we all hope to return to more “normal” lives over the next few months, Ringvold is certain that a lot of the changes in our work life are here to stay.

- These are changes that were always going to happen, but Covid19 has accelerated the transformation.

 

Developers are the most in-demand

Over half of the IT jobs listed at the Norwegian job search engine finn.no are IT developer positions. Ringvold explains that programming skills, both front-end, and back-end, are the most sought-after skills in the market right now.

- In general people skilled in programming are in great demand. But increased digitalization has also led to an increased demand for cyber security, and we also see more job openings in Artificial intelligence and machine learning, said Ringvold.

 

Accelerated tech learning

The increased demand for IT skills has led to an increased demand for IT education. Noroff – School of technology and digital media have recently launched Noroff Accelerate, offering short courses and part-time bootcamps to anyone looking to increase their knowledge and tech skills.

- We know that there is a great demand for IT skills, and we know that not everybody has the opportunity to go become a full-time student or fit an extensive part-time program into their schedule. At Accelerate we offer effective, flexible learning, suitable for people working full time, said Erlend Koppen Skar, Head of Noroff Accelerate.

As we write this two Accelerate bootcamps are running online. During the ten-week, part-time, bootcamp the candidates are learning “Web development with JavaScript” or “Programming with Python”.

A quick browse through a few job search websites show that the candidates are getting in-demand skills. Nearly 500.000 job listings are looking for Python skills at LinkedIn, and over 420.000 for JavaScript.

- We have a close connection with companies and relevant industries, and we design our courses to provide people with the skills and knowledge that the industry is looking for, said Koppen Skar.

- There is a massive skills gap in tech, and our goal is to help close it.