Technological skills are always in demand in the various industries around the globe. However, the industries have a fancy trend of hiring the young, white males from big schools. Hence, Northeastern University's Seattle campus Dean and CEO Scott McKinley wants industry and education to collaborate to solve tech talent gap, ageism and sexism.
Based on a survey, there are more tech jobs created compared to the number of candidates who are qualified to take the job. For instance, there are 3,700 tech jobs created annually in Washington but only 500 candidates graduate with computer science degrees.
With that said, the survey showed an alarming difference between the jobs and the workforce industry, highlighting the issues in tech talent gap. According to 2016 GeekWire Summit, McKinley urged the two major sectors — industry and education — to stop "finger pointing and whining" to solve these challenges.
"There are people that are trying to chip away at this problem," McKinley said. But aside from the tech talent gap, women and older men are also facing problems of sexism and ageism as they do not have a computer-science degree from reputable educational institutions.
Fortunately, it seems that the workforce industry is trying their best to address the issues. In fact, a voice from the industry spoke on the event. Redfin Company's Chief Technology Officer Bridget Frey, whose company is based in Seattle, said her company has hired more female engineers up to 30 percent. The company has also been hiring candidates with non-traditional software backgrounds.
The tech giant Microsoft has also been accounting for the unconscious biases and the subconscious prejudices that have been conceived in the minds of individuals. "We don't know where the next talent is going to come from, and it isn't always going to be the people who look like us or talk like us," the general manager of talent, learning and insights at Microsoft, Joe Whittinghill said.
Meanwhile, it's a known fact that staying on top means facing a highly competitive arena of the workforce industry, particularly in tech companies. As a matter of fact, OfferUp's Vice President of Engineering Peter Wilson revealed that companies are sometimes stealing engineers from each other, the cost of such act is said to be about $75,000.
In order to eradicate the biases in tech industries, there are really a lot of things needed to be done. That's why, industry and education sectors must collaborate to train diverse tech workforce, fight prejudices and understand the worth of each resource.
