The shortages of manpower in Taiwan's IT industry have worsened, fueled by the government's push for its "5+2" industrial innovation plan and its efforts to persuade Taiwanese companies to move back from China.
The "5+2" plan covers seven industries and projects: intelligent machinery, Asia Silicon Valley (focused on IoT), green energy, biomedicine, national defense and aerospace, new agriculture and the circular economy.
The program may stimulate innovation, boost the competitiveness of industry and increase corporate profitability, but they all need to be supported by high-caliber engineers and technicians.
Additionally, new investments committed by returning local companies from China are focusing mostly on IT products, thus adding more pressure on the need of skilled technicians and workers in the industry.
It is estimated that there will be a shortage of about 83,000 technicians required by the 5+2 initiative and the new IT companies set up by local companies that move some of their production lines back to Taiwan.
A study conducted by a government committee concerning science and technology has noted that there is a great need of digital talent, management and high-level executives with cross-sector knowledge and capability in fields including information, communication, electrical engineering, electronics, chemical, manufacturing, electricity and energy.
For this reason, the government approved recently a proposal for taining personnel in communication and digital fields by the education ministry.
The government plans to produce 7,500 IT personnel a year for 11 consecutive years from 2020 by the offering multiple open training programs to those who have just graduated from college or already entered the job market to build up their communication and digital capability.
Also beginning in 2020, the number of students enrolled by the 1,177 information and communications departments in Taiwan's universities and colleges will increase by 10% or by 3,100 students per year, in addition to an increase of 450 students a year for taking courses related to AI and information security.
Article translated by Steve Shen
