The future of IT occupations

The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) is currently investigating whether the four dual IT occupations of information technology specialist, information technology and tele-communications system electronics technician, information and telecommunications system support specialist and information technology officer should be modernised. The aims of the project, which is being conducted on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi), are to identify current and future requirements for skilled IT workers and to draw up recommendations for the further structuring of the IT occupations.

BIBB has now launched an online survey in order to ensure the broadest possible participation in this process. The survey is primarily directed at companies which provide, have provided or plan to provide training in these occupations. The target audience comprises company managers, HR and training staff, skilled IT workers, trainees, workers’ councils, bodies representing young people and trainees and voca-tional school teachers. The survey is available online with immediate effect at https://uzbonn.de/it-berufe-aktuell. It closes on 25 May 2016. The results of this online survey will be used to inform the project’s Final Report, which is expected to be published in the autumn of 2016.

The introduction of the four IT occupations in 1997 was one of the success stories in the history of vo-cational education and training. Around 200,000 skilled workers have been trained in the meantime. The high degree of attractiveness of the training is in particular due to the combination of broadly based core skills and specific specialist qualifications it offers. A flexible structure and an examination model that is aligned to operational practice have enabled the IT occupations to fulfil the requirements of the companies for some considerable time and to create good employment opportunities for those completing the training qualifications. The number of newly concluded training contracts in these oc-cupations is about 15,000 per year, and the occupation of information technology specialist has proved particularly popular.

Nevertheless, the digital transformation of the world of work is increasingly bringing about change in terms of the requirements employees face. These changes are being driven by technical developments in the fields of hardware, software, data storage, data transmission and IT security as well as being instigated by new integrated approaches and interfaces between information and production technology. This is a field in which new and complex tasks are being created for IT specialists. The consequence of this is that interface competences between the areas of information technology, business administration, communication and media design are gaining in significance.

The BIBB online survey can be accessed at: https://uzbonn.de/it-berufe-aktuell

Further (German language) information on the project is available at www.bibb.de/voruntersuchung_itberufe and in an article included in Issue 6/2015 of the BIBB journal “Vocational Training in Research and Practice” (BWP).

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