Cisco CTO: IT skills shortage will get worse before it gets better

Zorawar Biri Singh says it is the responsibility of everyone in the channel to help solve the issue

Zorawar Biri Singh, Cisco's CTO for platforms and solutions, has said the IT skills shortage is going to get worse before it gets better.

Speaking during Cisco's 2016 Partner Summit in San Diego, Zorawar said there is a particular shortage of skills in security and IoT.

"You can't find enough security pros, for that matter you can't fine enough developers in certain areas," he said. "In general in tech and professionals there is just a big gap worldwide right now...The skills gap is going to get harder before it gets easier."

Zorawar said he felt it was the responsibility of everyone to step up and provide the necessary training to alleviate the issue.

"I think the entire ecosystem [is responsible]," he said. "I think universities also have to recognise it and step in and provide a lot more programmes towards much more focused disciplines in IT. I think vendors have to lead the way there [as well]."

When asked about skills shortages in IoT, Zorawar said this is a very nascent market that will start maturing 10 years down the line.

With security, he said he has noticed a trend of partners becoming focused and specialised in certain areas of the market, for example network security.