Employers hard-pressed to fill tech jobs; In Waterloo Region alone, there are 2,000 technology job vacancies at any given time
BYLINE: MICHAEL HAMMOND, RECORD STAFF
DATELINE: WATERLOO REGION
More than 90,000 technology jobs will be created in Canada in the next five years, but the pipeline of IT grads from colleges is not keeping up, a new series of reports suggests.
In Waterloo Region, there are 2,000 technology job vacancies at any given time, according to Communitech, the region's technology industry group.
The Tech Labour Market reports, released yesterday by the Information and Communications Technology Council, suggest that industry executives and government leaders need to find ways to fill the growing needs of Canada's technology industry.
Those needs are already evident in the region, said Avvey Peters, spokesperson for Communitech.
"For us, one of the things technology companies have told us in the last couple of years is finding talent is their biggest issue," said Peters. "That's why our No. 1 priority is recruitment."
Software developers, quality assurance professionals, product managers, sales staff and IT network administrators are among the most sought-after tech workers in the region, Peters said.
The technology council surveyed 24 colleges across Canada and found that the number of students in IT programs has declined by six per cent in the last three years, to 16,271 from 17,183. By 2009, the decline could reach 10 per cent. Some programs could see enrolment fall more than 10 per cent.
Paul Swinwood, president of the group that commissioned the reports, said there were 7,000 IT graduates across Canada in 2005. Evidence suggests the number of grads in some programs has fallen 76 per cent since then.
Conestoga College president John Tibbits said the falling number of IT students is a complex problem affecting schools across North America.
This school year, he said the college's IT programs saw a 25 per cent jump in IT program applicants. Still, he said the numbers are nowhere near where they were before the technology industry crash in early 2000s.
"We could quadruple our graduates and they could all get jobs, especially with RIM," he said. "But, with the tech bubble bursting, there is this perception that there aren't as many jobs available."
Tibbits also said more needs to be done to assure students that a job in IT does not mean being banished to an isolated existence in an office cubicle.
The college has not seen the enrolment numbers in its electronics and mechanical engineering programs rebound as much as IT, he said.
Communitech hopes part of the solution to future skills shortages can be found in other technology centres like Toronto, Ottawa, Silicon Valley in California and Boston.
Peters said Communitech's Boomerang recruitment program tries to entice technology professionals who graduated here and then left the area to return to the region for a better quality of life.
The region offers an affordable lifestyle and diverse economy, Peters said, which sets it apart from some technology centres like Ottawa.
"We're not a one-horse town," Peters said. "That's certainly one of our key strengths."
That's a critical advantage when a technology professional is married to someone outside the technology field, Peters said.