Nine out of 10 Canadian executives have identified some degree of IT skills gap in their organization, with nearly half saying it is extensive, a new study has revealed.
Non-profit trade association CompTIA (Computing Technology Industry Association), has published its 2015 International Technology Adoption & Workforce Trends Study, which surveyed 1,507 IT and business executives around the world including 126 in Canada.
The other 42 per cent of Canadian executives said that the skills gaps identified were small.
Yet despite these figures, only a third, or 34 per cent of executives expected to hire more IT staff this year.
Top five priorities that were identified for Canadian businesses include IT security, data storage and backup, Mobility, Disaster recovery and business continuity and Network infrastructure.
While 65 per cent say cyber threats are increasing, nearly half or 47 per cent surveyed say human error, such as failure of end-users to comply with security policies and failure to understand new threats, could be to blame.
Executives identified lower staff productivity and lack of innovation or product development as impacts of the IT skills shortage.