Relevance of ICT skills to employees and job seekers

CT skill is relevant in almost every sector of the society but we are going to consider the relevance in the labour market in this post. We will consider other sectors in our subsequent posts

ICT revolution has brought total transformation in the labour market and the type of skill required by the employers in the labour market has taken a new dimension. Before now, the most important thing every employer looks out for in a prospective employees was University certificate, but it has gone far more than that.

Currently, employers require their employees to have some practical skills in addition to their degree certificate before they can employ them and the most important of those skills is ICT skill. This is not exaggeration! Employers are incorporating ICT technologies into their company management and require ICT skilled staff to be able to run the management. Due to this reliance on ICT infrastructure to carry out companiesâ or institutionsâ activities, having an ICT skill on a CV is currently an added advantage

This is not just happening in private firms, it is happening in public institutions. For instance, the development and deployment of application software solutions like the Land Information management system, School management solution etc. requires that staffs of these institutions whether private or public possess some basic ICT skills or be trained in using them.

Information and communication technology has proved to promote and enhance organizational and institutional productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. Thus, when organizations look out for staffs to employ, they look out for people who can engage the ICT tools to bring about productivity, innovation and creativity.

Just like English and Maths, ICT qualification seems to be the compulsory qualification an employer looks out for in an employee. Even small and medium scale enterprises use ICT system to monitor and

follow up the inflow and out flow of goods,services and finance. It tracks the record of goods brought into the company,the amount sold and the amount in stock. This makes it impossible for someone without the knowledge of ICT system to get employed in such establishment. This is why Hardyn said that  possessing basic computer knowledge can be a distinct advantage in the workplace. And this skill may range from ability to send emails to other tasks such as using a program to monitors stock control, creating a spreadsheet to evaluate data, or using software such as CAD (computer aided design) to create graphic images.