Carinthia’s economy at risk due to lack of IT specialists, says WK Spartenobmann Martin Zandonella

Without IT, Carinthia loses economic power, employment and prosperity. “And that faster than some people are aware of,” says Martin Zandonella, chairman of the WK specialist group UBIT. On the basis of current studies, he has dealt intensively with IT training in Carinthia and created an extensive catalog of demands. “Today, IT is a driver of digital change and a success factor for a business location. But if there is a lack of qualified workers, Carinthia will lose competitiveness across the board,” warns Zandonella. This not only affects the IT industry itself, but the entire economy. Every company depends on employees with IT skills.

By 2030 more than 400 million euros lost in added value

Due to the currently 1,400 unfilled IT jobs, Carinthia as a business location loses 245 million euros in added value every year. This value will increase to over 400 million euros by 2030. “According to the latest studies, there will be a shortage of up to 2,300 IT specialists in Carinthia alone in the next seven years. Those are alarming numbers,” says Zandonella. Politicians must act now and push IT training at all levels. “Without IT specialists, there will be neither a green nor a digital transformation in the country,” emphasizes Zandonella.

10 concrete suggestions from the WK specialist group UBIT to counteract the lack of IT specialists in Carinthia:

1. Align kindergartens and elementary schools more on MINT subjects
2. Breaking down role stereotypes and creating special measures for more girls and women in technical professions
3. Anchor digital learning as a mandatory part of pedagogical education and training
4. Redesign educational and career orientation – counselors must know all offers in Carinthia and have no close relationship to schools or school types, parents are also actively involved in career orientation
5. Make Carinthia more attractive as a place to study, for example with scholarships or cheap apartments, and thereby stop the emigration of high potentials
6. Network universities, HTLs and schools across the board
7. Networking of HTL and secondary level 1 in the classroom, for example in digital basic education and in coding
8. Expand extra-occupational studies and make them more practice-friendly
9. Make the dual academy better known in schools and among inactive students
10. Promote new apprenticeships and the various possibilities of teaching – also with incentives for returnees and lateral entrants

Good education, but few graduates

“The general public is not yet aware of the job and career opportunities in IT. A lot has happened in the last few years in particular. The various IT training courses in Carinthia are good, but there are not enough skilled workers in the economy,” Zandonella knows. The applications at the HTLs are declining, the drop-out rate is increasing. Of the approximately 240 HTL graduates per year, around 100 go to universities, but only 40 of them go to Carinthia.

Current studies by the Industrial Science Institute and the Carinthian Institute for Advanced Studies and Scientific Research show further problems: The technical college has grown more slowly in recent years than was the case in the other federal states. On average, there are only 22 bachelor’s and 10 master’s graduates at the technical college in Carinthia each year, at the Alpen-Adria-Universität there are an average of 40 bachelor’s and 30 master’s graduates. “In total, there are 70 bachelor’s graduates and around 80 HTL graduates who are available for the job market and only a part of them remain in Carinthia. That is far too little,” says Zandonella. The economy needs far more IT specialists – because up to 600 new jobs are created in the IT sector every year. From today’s perspective, only a fraction of these can be occupied.

Questions:
Carinthia Chamber of Commerce
Information and Consulting division
Kurt Wolf
T 05 90 90 4-760
E kurt.wolf@wkk.or.at
W ubit-kaernten.at