IT Skills Gap in Belarus Establishment of a new ICT capacity-building program in Belarus Submitted To: World Bank Project Team Sandra Sargent ssargent@worldbank.org Juan Navas-Sabater jnavassabater@worldbank.org Submitted By: JSC ‘Civitta BY’ Daniel Krutzinna, Team Lead +375 44 7 412 412 daniel@civitta.com September 12, 2018 List of abbreviations Belarus The Republic of Belarus BNTU Belarusian National Technical University BSEU Belarus State Economic University BSTU Belarus State Technology University BSU Belarusian State University BSUIR Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics CSN Computer Systems and Networks EBRD European Bank for Reconstruction and Development ECTS European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System EHEA European Higher Education Area EU European Union FRCT Faculty of Radiophysics and Computer Technologies GDP Gross Domestic Product GoB Government of Belarus HEI Higher Educational Institution HR Human Resources HTP High Technology Park ICT Information and Communication Technology IT Information Technology ITRF Information Technologies and Robotics Faculty KTNET Korea Trade Network NTPS National Paperless Trade System OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development R&D Research and Development STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics List of figures Figure 1: Structure of employment in the ICT sector in Belarus (2014), people .................................. 10 Figure 2: Total number and the demand for IT specialists in Belarus (2012–2016) people, thousands .............................................................................................................................................................. 11 Figure 3: Companies’ intentions to hire new employees in the next three to four months, percentage of surveyed companies ......................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 4: Companies’ intentions to hire new employees in the next three years, percentage of surveyed companies ............................................................................................................................................. 12 Figure 5: The most demanded specialists in IT companies, percentage of companies ........................ 13 Figure 6: Average revenue per employee comparison (US$, thousands) ............................................ 14 Figure 7: Companies’ shares in number of employees and revenues comparison, percentage .......... 15 Figure 8: Business lines of HTP residents, percentage of respondents ................................................ 16 Figure 9: Vacancies’ structures comparison, Belarus and Finland, percentage of vacancies ............... 17 Figure 10: The most demanded skill sets in IT companies, percentage of companies ......................... 19 Figure 11: Results of the survey on the main problems in labor pool of the IT market in Belarus, percentage of respondents ................................................................................................................... 19 Figure 12: The results of the survey on the insufficient skills of IT specialists, percentage of respondents .............................................................................................................................................................. 21 Figure 13: Levels of the importance of various criteria to hire an employee, pp. based on the survey of IT companies ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Figure 14: The most demanded specialists in real sector, percentage of companies ......................... 24 Figure 15: Industrial revolutions and future view ................................................................................ 26 Figure 16: Number of HEIs .................................................................................................................... 28 Figure 17: Levels of higher education in Belarus .................................................................................. 29 Figure 18: The student-to-population ratio per 10,000 people ........................................................... 29 Figure 19: Software developers’ segmentation by universities (2016) ................................................ 31 Figure 20: The estimation of IT graduates’ number, people ................................................................ 32 Figure 21: Results of the survey on skills of graduates and requirements of IT companies ................ 33 Figure 22: Results of the survey on possible ways to improve the quality of IT education ................ 33 Figure 23: Results of the survey on the level of the education sector’s cooperation with the IT sector .............................................................................................................................................................. 34 Figure 24: Share of the companies that provide internal training courses (percentage of the surveyed companies), their average duration (weeks), and payment terms (percentage of the surveyed companies) ............................................................................................................................................ 36 Figure 25: Share of the companies that provide external training courses (percentage of the surveyed companies), their average duration (weeks), and payment terms (percentage of the surveyed companies) ............................................................................................................................................ 36 Figure 26: Expansion of IT educational centers in Belarus, number of centers ................................... 37 Figure 27: The share of educational centers to provide the following courses, percentage ............... 38 Figure 28: Number of graduates from educational centers, 2017, people .......................................... 39 Figure 29: Number of graduates from IT companies’ training courses, 2017, people ......................... 40 Figure 30: Estimation of IT specialists’ supply and demand gap, people ............................................ 42 Figure 31: Average salaries, BYN/hour ................................................................................................. 44 Figure 32: Share of women employed in IT sphere in Belarus, percentage of total number of industry employees ............................................................................................................................................. 45 Figure 33: Share of women in ITC-industry by country and regions, 2016, percentage of total number of industry employees .......................................................................................................................... 46 Figure 34: Comparison of women in IT sphere in Belarus and international IT companies, 2014 –2016, percentage of total number of industry employees ............................................................................. 46 3 Figure 35: Share of women’s employment in the IT sphere in Belarus by specialty, percentage of total number of employees ........................................................................................................................... 47 Figure 36: Share of female alumni of ICT-related faculties of Belarussian HEIs, percentage of total number of ICT-related faculties’ alumni ............................................................................................... 47 Figure 37: Gender monthly pay gap in IT industry within specialties, US$ .......................................... 48 Figure 38: The attitude of the IT sector specialists, students, and academics to the need for additional postgraduate education........................................................................................................................ 49 Figure 39: Types of specialists, for whom the master’s program will be most in demand .................. 49 Figure 40: The preferences of IT specialists about the duration of the IT program ............................. 50 Figure 41: Key attributes of a high-quality educational program according to the opinion of specialists of education sector, IT sector, and students ........................................................................................ 51 Figure 42: Preferable share of practical classes in additional education, percentage ......................... 51 Figure 43: The disciplines considered the most important by students, IT specialists, and academics .............................................................................................................................................................. 52 Figure 44: Percentage of respondents, who consider the possibility to choose courses that they like the main attribute of a high-quality program ....................................................................................... 53 Figure 45: Structure of average curriculum of master’s programs at Belarussian universitiesa and new master’s program .................................................................................................................................. 54 Figure 46: BSU’s enrollment plan by programs, people ....................................................................... 55 Figure 47: The comparison of curriculums of the new master’s program and international ones ...... 59 Figure 48: General IT organization model ............................................................................................ 62 4 List of tables Table 1: The list of Belarussian Universities that teach IT .................................................................... 30 Table 2: Training centers in IT companies and educational centers comparison ................................. 37 Table 3: BSUIR’s master’s programs enrollment plan, people ............................................................. 55 Table 4: Comparison of master’s programs ‘System Analysis, Management, and Processing of Information’, ‘Electronic Government’, and new master’s program ‘Complex Integrated Systems Design’................................................................................................................................................... 56 Table 5: Comparison of Belarussian and foreign IT master’s programs ............................................... 58 Table 6: Roles and responsibilities of the NTPS implementing organizations ...................................... 62 5 Table of Contents LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................................... 2 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... 3 LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................ 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................... 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 9 1. ANALYSIS OF SKILLS AND TALENT GAPS IN THE BELARUSSIAN ICT INDUSTRY ............................................ 11 1.1. Demand-side analysis of skills gap in the Belarussian ICT industry ......................................... 11 1.1.1. Quantitative demand for IT specialists in Belarus................................................................. 11 1.1.2. Transition to the product model and new qualification requirements for IT specialists ..... 13 1.1.3. Qualitative demand for IT specialists in Belarus ................................................................... 20 1.2. Demand analysis for qualified IT staff in the real sector ......................................................... 23 1.3. Supply-side analysis of skills gap in the Belarussian ICT industry ............................................ 28 1.3.1. Higher education in IT sector - its strengths and weaknesses .............................................. 28 1.3.2. Training courses as an attempt to bridging the skills gap ..................................................... 35 1.3.3. Systemic shortcomings of Belarussian education.................................................................... 42 2. GENDER GAPS IN BELARUSSIAN IT SECTOR ..................................................................................... 45 3. IT MASTER’S PROGRAMS ANALYSIS .............................................................................................. 49 3.1. Demand side - The results of survey ........................................................................................ 49 3.2. Supply side - Existing Belarussian IT master’s programs ......................................................... 52 3.3. Belarussian IT master’s programs in the sphere of complex systems ..................................... 56 3.4. Benchmarking with the best comparable foreign examples ................................................... 57 4. ANALYSIS OF THE IT SKILLS NEEDED FOR SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE NTPS .... 61 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................. 65 ANNEX 1. OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY..................................................................................... 69 Objective ............................................................................................................................................ 69 Scope of the study .............................................................................................................................. 69 ANNEX 2. SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES ................................................................................................... 70 Questionnaire for quantitative survey of the IT companies .............................................................. 70 Questionnaire for quantitative survey of the representatives of the educational sector ................. 78 Questionnaire for quantitative survey of IT students ........................................................................ 85 6 Executive summary The main problem of the human resources (HR) sphere of the Belarussian information technology (IT) industry lies not in the insufficient number of specialists, but in the level of their overall qualification (both hard and soft skills). The situation with regard to the number of graduates looks good— universities produce about 30,000—35,000 specialists annually, which is quite enough to satisfy the needs of the IT industry. However, the educational programs of higher education institutions (HEIs) do not produce graduates with sufficient or necessary knowledge and skills demanded by real companies in the IT industry: • Training programs contain obsolete and irrelevant disciplines (philosophy, history, pedagogy, and so on). • There are not enough disciplines that strengthen cross-disciplinary knowledge and communication skills (soft skills). • Lack of practical training. The main causes of the inadequate preparation of graduates from IT higher education programs are • Inadequately qualified professors whose knowledge often is more theoretical and who do not have experience in real IT projects; • Low salary of professors, which does not allow the hiring of specialists from the real sector; • Insufficient cooperation between universities and IT industry (only five to six large outsourcing companies and five to seven international vendors understand the importance of collaboration); and • Systemic problems of the Belarussian education system, such as excessive regulation of the educational process, personnel crisis, low level of remuneration of professors in universities, insufficient flexibility and efficiency, formality of the approach in recruiting students for new specialties, formality of practice, motivational crisis, and so on. Both the IT companies themselves and non-IT specialized education companies have established educational courses to try to solve the issue: • Open educational courses provided by non-IT companies, which are attended mostly by students who are not IT specialists, do not provide the level of training required by the real sector. The main reason is the low level of motivation (and the general level of education) among students. Not more than 10 percent of the open IT course graduates continue their career in IT. Thus, the contribution of such courses to solving the HR problem is minimal. • Educational courses within the IT companies are aimed, first, at developing the skills of the existing employees of those companies. They increase the quality of the existing pool of specialists but do not bring new ones to the market. The HR issue becomes even more relevant for the specialties that require skills that are not connected with IT (that is, soft skills, management, project management, solving business problems of clients, communication, marketing, and so on). That is why these specialties are the most sought after in the market. They are becoming even more relevant taking into account the market transition from outsourcing to the product business model where ability to properly communicate with people and manage the team sometimes plays an even bigger role than technical skills. Career growth of a developer from junior to senior is much easier than from developer to system architect or project manager. 7 The solution lies in the development of relevant post-education programs. However, the existing master’s programs repeat the problems typical for IT education in general (first, the lack of practice and insufficient attention to soft skills and cross-discipline knowledge). Therefore, it is essential to consider the following points when developing a master’s program: • Practical internship in the IT industry and participating in real projects • Particular attention to the development of soft skills and teaching of cross-disciplinary disciplines • Involving professionals from the real sector in the educational process Two factors aggravate the problem of the employees’ qualification: • Low staff mobility. The high salaries of specialists do not motivate them to change jobs. The solution lies in increasing the number of highly qualified specialists, which will increase competition and lower expectations in the level of salaries. • Emigration of the highly skilled employees. The problem of migration lies not in the fact that many specialists leave but in the fact that these are the best specialists. The solution to this problem is much more complex: it is necessary to improve the overall standard of living in the country and provide potential emigrants with interesting projects in Belarus. The implementation of the policy of shifting the IT industry of Belarus toward a product model and attracting international IT giants will also partly contribute to solving the problem. To solve most of the educational problems in Belarus, it is necessary to implement some more ambitious reforms designed to increase the prestige of education in general and attract the best personnel to the industry. Thus, to solve the problem of the quality of IT specialists, it is necessary to work in three directions: • Changing the curricula • Improving the cooperation between universities and real sector companies (both with regard to teaching students and training professors). This problem is intended to be partially solved by the establishment of the Belarusian State University (BSU) information and communication technology (ICT) cluster • Training IT specialists in more complex specialties (system architects, project managers, and so on). A new BSU master’s program is aimed at solving this problem. 8 Introduction This is the second part of the information and communication technology (ICT) report; the main focus here is on ICT specialists, while the first part focused on ICT infrastructure and industry in general. The goal of this report is to study and analyze the aspects affecting the current state of talent in the country: education, supply and demand for specialists, training courses, and so on, and identify the skills gap. We have also reviewed different international masters programs to provide a benchmark for the new Belarussian master’s program in the sphere of complex integrated systems, which was designed to stimulate transition to the product market model and overcome the skills gap and will be discussed in part three of the overall report. Because some information cannot be obtained from open sources, we have also conducted a study of the opinion of the current industry players: IT professionals, IT students, IT professors on a number of issues concerning the current state of talent in Belarus. Thus, the data provided in the report allows us to assess the current skills gap in Belarus and identify possible solutions to overcome this gap. Nowadays, more and younger Belarussians are choosing a career in the IT sector. In 2010, some 20,000 people were employed in the IT industry and that number grew to 36,000 in 2015, according to the Belarusian National Statistical Committee. Of that number, 25,000 software engineers work in the companies-residents of the Belarussian High Technology Park (HTP). Many high school graduates, who are about to choose their future profession, realize that they can apply their skills to become a part of the digital transformation. Over the recent years, the government has created a complex ICT infrastructure ecosystem that welcomes the steady development of the IT industry. These days, IT is the most flourishing sector in the country’s economy and can attract many people who want to build a successful career in this field. There is no doubt that for a young person, the main criterion that influences his/her professional choice is the high income of IT specialists. The median salary in the IT sector reached US$1,350 in 2016, according to dev.by, while the country’s average salary level is only US$375, according to the National Statistical Committee. The ICT market has become even more competitive, but there is mostly competition for the employers and not for the employees: companies are struggling to hire enough talent when there is clearly a shortage of skilled people in the market. The Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics (BSUIR) and the Belarusian State University (BSU), the country’s leading universities in the IT sphere, have been facing a constant inflow of gifted talent. They also have some links with the biggest companies in the industry, resulting in almost full employment in companies for certain students from the university. Unfortunately, Belarussian universities are not able to prepare skilled personnel in the right proportion to industrial demand, as illustrated further in this report. Such a conclusion may be made because various retraining courses are now beginning to emerge even in IT companies. It should be noted that Belarus has a solid background in engineering education, which favors the creation of qualified specialists in related professions, who could be retrained to become IT specialists very quickly. 9 Figure 1: Structure of employment in the ICT sector in Belarus (2014), people Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. A comprehensive strategy for reducing the skills gap requires the rise of education quality. Second, it demands a diversified approach to education, that is, recognizing that both medium skills (provided through technical and vocational education) and high skills (provided through tertiary education) are required in the labor market and are necessary for economic growth. In addition, it implies improving the relevance of education and training through strengthening channels of communication between educational institutions and employers, as well as public-private partnerships. 10 1. Analysis of skills and talent gaps in the Belarussian ICT industry 1.1. Demand-side analysis of skills gap in the Belarussian ICT industry 1.1.1. Quantitative demand for IT specialists in Belarus Main findings: • The IT market in Belarus is one of the most developing sectors in the economy, but the mismatch between the supply and the demand for skilled IT labor is one of the key factors that hinder the growth of the industry. • Civitta survey revealed the almost permanent need for new talent with technical knowledge and skill sets. • Software development will remain the most widespread and in-demand specialization in the next three years. There is a qualitative gap between the skills needed in IT companies and those supplied by the higher education system and vocational education institutions of the country. This translates into a constant quantitative need for new employees in the sector, which means that there are enough specialists in general but a lack of skilled specialists. Based on the official data, the number of employees in the IT sector grows by 10 percent on average and requires around 33,000 specialists each year. Figure 2: Total number and the demand for IT specialists in Belarus (2012 –2016) people, thousands Source: The National Statistic Committee of the Republic of Belarus. The survey of IT companies, conducted by Civitta, revealed the almost permanent need for new talent with technical knowledge and skill sets. The survey assessed the short-term (next three to four months) and long-term (up to three years) needs of the companies. 11 Figure 3: Companies’ intentions to hire new employees in the next three to four months, percentage of surveyed companies Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. The bigger the IT company, the more employees it intends to hire both in the short- and long-term perspectives. Meanwhile, the smaller companies tend to stick to the strategy of relatively conservative growth of hiring employees. Figure 4: Companies’ intentions to hire new employees in the next three years, percentage of surveyed companies Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. Software development will remain the most widespread and in-demand specialization in the next three years. Both in the short- and long-term perspectives, software development remains the highest in-demand specialization in the IT sector followed by system architects. The demand for system architects is also estimated to increase at a much higher rate in comparison with the other specializations due to the further development of IT systems (Figure 5). 12 Figure 5: The most demanded specialists in IT companies, percentage of companies Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. 1.1.2. Transition to the product model and new qualification requirements for IT specialists Main findings: • The outsourcing business model was adopted by Belarus as a starting point for IT industry development. • The main constraint in recruitment for ICT companies is the lack of qualified IT specialists in the market. • Based on the Civitta survey, the main problems of the Belarussian IT sector, which results in the overall lack of IT specialists, are the insufficient qualifications of employees, the migration of specialists (the brain drain), and the inflated salary expectations. The outsourcing business model was adopted by Belarus as a starting point over ten years ago and is losing its relevance. The model is based on selling the maximum possible number of working hours at the maximum price. The low cost of Belarussian IT specialists, in comparison with specialists from Western countries, ensured the rapid growth of the industry during the last ten years. At the same time, the development of IT industries in other countries continues. In the near future, Belarussian programmers will face competition from programmers from Vietnam, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and other developing countries. Other things being equal, companies will not be able to sell Belarussian teams, which are much more expensive than a team from Asia or Africa. This is already happening—even Belarussian outsourcing companies open development offices in countries with 13 cheaper labor force and launch programs for improving skills for local staff. For example, EPAM Systems has more than 23,000 employees in 25 countries, including more than 8,000 people in Belarus. An alternative to the outsourcing model is the development of the product line. This might not be the one and only way of development for the Belarussian IT industry, but it has more advantages than the outsourcing model. The delivery of final solutions and their export to the global market poses great risks, but the potential revenue per employee is much higher. For example, in the HTPs the average revenue per employee of a product company exceeds that of an outsourcing company by more than two times (Figure 6). Figure 6: Average revenue per employee comparison (US$, thousands) Source: HTP, dev.by survey, Civitta Consulting company analysis. The prevalence of the outsourcing model was planned when the HTP was opened. The situation is preserved owing to companies such as EPAM Systems, IBA, Itransition, ISsoft, iTechArt, Exadel, SaM Solutions, ScienceSoft, and so on. They offer a wide range of services from providing individual developers and engineers to entire groups of experts to develop complex software solutions. Most of the companies are registered and operating in Belarus, but their headquarters or representative offices are situated in key markets: the United States of America, the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, and so on. According to an E&Y survey,1 more than half of the respondents (69 percent) noted that outsourcing of IT services is their predominant business model. Nevertheless, companies are steadily moving from basic IT outsourcing models to more complex forms. Based on the survey, 67 percent of companies are engaged in the development of customized technical solutions, 52 percent develop customized products, and 43 percent design customized industry solutions. Many industry experts emphasize the importance of promoting and supporting those companies that develop and sell proprietary products and expect that this will be reflected in new legislative initiatives in the IT industry. The development of software products was initially focused on satisfying domestic demand in Belarus and was carried out by such companies as IBA, SoftClub, System Technologies, and BelHard. The growth of mobile and gaming segments of the market, for example, Game Stream (Wargaming), Viaden Media, and so on, has given Belarussian developers a powerful impetus, and currently many Belarussian companies successfully develop products such as Apalon, Vizor, and Targetprocess. 1 http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/ey-it-industry-in-belarus-2017-and-beyond/$FILE/ey-it-industry- in-belarus-2017-and-beyond.pdf. 14 Figure 7: Companies’ shares in number of employees and revenues comparison, percentage Source: HTP, dev.by survey, Civitta Consulting company analysis. Outsourcing companies have begun to develop and support their own products. According to the results of the survey, 48 percent of respondents stated that they build products and provide related support services for internal needs of the company, 43 percent develop their own products for enterprises, and 40 percent develop products for the mass market. 15 Figure 8: Business lines of HTP residents, percentage of respondents Source: E&Y research. In the long term, considering the development of IT technologies and the potential for implementing government initiatives aimed at the transition from outsourcing to a product model, the structure of vacancies for IT professionals can change. To assess the areas of change, we compared the vacancy structure in Belarus and Finland, one of the leaders in the IT industry. Project managers, ICT consultants, support and security specialists, architects, and management personnel are much less in demand in Belarus. These specialties are necessary for the successful development of product companies, and the low need for them points to the outsourcing line of the IT industry in Belarus. The prevalence of developers, testers, and network engineers only confirms this hypothesis. 16 Figure 9: Vacancies’ structures comparison, Belarus and Finland, percentage of vacancies Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. Based on the analysis of open vacancies of resources jobs.tut.by and dev.by, it can be noted that outsourcing companies offer a high, and most importantly, a stable salary from the start, but according to the interviews with industry players, the work itself is rather monotonous without opportunities for significant growth. In turn, product companies, as a rule, have to perform a variety of tasks while offering much more opportunities for growth. The advantages of working in a product company are the following: • Considerably more involvement in product development and barrier-less communication between the developer and the client allows developers to evolve from pure performers into conscious engineers who understand business tasks rather than just having theoretical knowledge. • As a rule, there are stronger teams in product companies, and they build longer-term relationships with their employees because they are aimed primarily at product development and not in the resale of their employees’ time. • Developers in product teams, as a rule, are more efficient in solving business problems because of the closer involvement of the company’s management. • Opportunity to expand the zone of interests, work with different technologies, and explore different areas. Employees get the opportunity to not only develop technical skills but also explore architecture, business analytics, and project management. • Faster growth than in an outsourcing company. With the rapid growth of the product company, the employees, especially those who joined early on, are growing both in terms of their careers and income. 17 At the same time, the product model has some shortcomings: • Specialists with higher qualification are needed. For the development of software products, mainly experienced specialists with a broad set of skills are involved. • Lack of migration between projects and technologies within the company. • The risks of failure and loss of the job are much higher. The main advantages of outsourcing for IT specialists are • Stability of employment, working time, and wages; and • Ability to learn the advanced approaches to development. This is important for a person to quickly become a professional and work according to global standards with established development processes. The disadvantages of the outsourcing model for programmers are the following: • The outsourcing company does not own the final product of development. Programmers develop a product for clients and the end product belongs to the client. This can be critical for young professionals with maximalism who want to make a mark in the industry. • The danger of being stuck on an uninteresting long-term project, where it is not possible to introduce new ideas and apply new technologies. Often customers outsource dull, routine work, leaving breakthrough tasks for themselves. And, in this case, programmers occupying critical places in the development, can move. • Sometimes an employee of an outsourcing company does not have a sense of belonging to the company and share the corporate values. Some programmers view it not as a company where they would like to work but as a kind of framing that provides work for a particular customer. Thus, we can conclude that the product line is more promising in the long term. However, despite the possibility of obtaining higher incomes and more diverse and exciting work in product companies, most specialists choose outsourcing, as they are risk averse and prefer stability to potentially high earnings. This is because of the peculiarities of the Belarussian people, who have a modest outlook and low entrepreneurial initiative. Nevertheless, to further develop the product model within the Belarussian IT market (and such intentions are voiced at the highest level of the country's leadership), 2 not only are changes in legislation required to ensure the feasibility of business models and the completeness of the organization of companies but also more highly qualified specialists. And, this means that it is necessary to change the education system to train specialists in new areas and overcome the qualification gap in knowledge and skills. The main constraint in recruitment for ICT companies is the lack of qualified IT specialists in the market. There are generally a large number of applicants for junior vacancies, but the skill levels of most candidates are not adequate and do not meet the company’s requirements. According to IT companies, the lack of qualified candidates and talents is the main constraint of recruitment. Based on the interviews, one of the first steps to increase the supply of qualified labor would be to increase the quality of the existing labor pool. High salaries in the IT industry and an unstable economic situation in other industries attract many newcomers with poor skill sets to the Belarusian IT market. According to several companies, the ratio of job applicants per position and the number of hired applicants is constantly worsening, due to the increasing demand for higher skills, in parallel with the industry dynamics. 2 http://www.government.by/upload/docs/file4c1542d87d1083b5.PDF. 18 Figure 10: The most demanded skill sets in IT companies, percentage of companies Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. Based on the Civitta survey, the main problems of the Belarussian IT sector, which result in the overall lack of IT specialists, are the insufficient qualifications of employees, the migration of specialists (the brain drain), and the inflated salary expectations. Figure 11: Results of the survey on the main problems in labor pool of the IT market in Belarus, percentage of respondents Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. The migration trend severely affects the pool of available IT specialists in Belarus. Currently, there is a significant migration outflow from Belarus, caused by weak economic conditions, which, in particular, causes a brain drain in the IT industry. Most of the companies interviewed confirm that retention has recently been dropping due to the high number of migrating employees. Most of those who are 19 migrating are senior- and mid-level specialists. According to the dev.by survey, 63.7 percent of Belarussian software developers are willing to emigrate from Belarus. The most attractive region for migration is Western Europe, with more than 70 percent of respondents considering it the most suitable place to migrate. It is noteworthy that work in these countries attracts even those software developers who do not consider employment abroad. The limited supply of qualified labor is inflating salary expectations. The current salaries remain competitive for the multinationals. However, given that Belarus is pursuing a product-based rather than an outsourcing-based model for its development because it is supported at the governmental level and driven by market demand, this poses a constraint to local industry development and growth of Belarussian IT products. Because of the IT skills gap in the industry, qualified candidates become more sought-after, which results in their salary expectations exceeding their knowledge and skills. In 2016–2017, the monthly net salary of IT employees varied in the range of US$300–US$5,000. In 2016, the official average monthly net remuneration in Belarus was about US$329, which is almost equal to the lower level of the average IT sector salary. This indicates that IT is a very high value-added sector and increasing jobs in the sector will have a positive effect on the economy in general. 1.1.3. Qualitative demand for IT specialists in Belarus Main findings: • According to the information obtained through the Civitta survey from the private sector, the quality gap of the skills and availability of IT labor can be improved by increasing the quality of graduates from local universities. • Technical knowledge and the motivation of the graduates are the most crucial factors for recruitment decision making, followed by soft skills and salary expectations. • There is no significant difference between the qualifications received in different faculties of universities. Consequently, given the presence of other required selection criteria within the job candidature, the studied disciplines play a negligible role. Higher education plays a key role in developing basic skills of graduates. These skills form the basis of their theoretical and practical knowledge. However, local companies regard these skills mostly as being outdated and below the expected level. This relates to both fundamental technical knowledge and the more generic soft skills of the graduates. One of the topical issues is the absence of real business practical experience as university authorities usually do not pay enough attention to practical activities and it is mostly a formality for completion of a course. The interviews were conducted with the respondent companies to evaluate the skill level of graduates according to the following five knowledge/skill types: • Technical skills (programming). The level of the student’s familiarity with up-to-date technical tools (engineering equipment, programming languages, platforms, and so on) to apply acquired theoretical knowledge in specific projects. • Soft skills. The level of communication and self-expression, as well as the ability to work in a team. • Management skills. The level of managerial skills, the ability to make business decisions, and lead subordinates within a company. • Sales and marketing skills. The ability to identify potential clients, assess their needs, develop products to suit client requirements, organize marketing programs and promotional activities, and provide client satisfaction. 20 • Knowledge of English. The importance of this is underlined by the fact that IT/high-technology is mostly an internationalized sector with considerable interaction with the outside world. Half of the respondents from outsourcing companies and 60 percent of the product companies assess the technical capabilities of the graduates as far below the expected level and not satisfactory for employment (Figure 12). All the respondents unanimously mentioned that most of the graduates lack practical capabilities even given their relatively elevated level of theoretical knowledge, due to the absence of practical activities in the universities. Underdeveloped practical knowledge and skills mean higher learning and development costs for employers, further placing downward pressure on sector competitiveness in the global dimension. Besides the evaluation of technical skills, some of the respondents stated that the ability to self- educate and quickly grasp new concepts is of higher importance. This is conditioned by rapid industry dynamics, which suggests that any theoretical knowledge will be outdated over time, while the ability to self-educate is a prerequisite for the modern IT specialist. Company executives believe that the skills and know-how to educate oneself should be taught in the university. Figure 12: The results of the survey on the insufficient skills of IT specialists, percentage of respondents Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. More generic skills (work ethics, teamwork, and so on) which reveal the level of communication and self-expression, as well as the ability to work in a team, are a part of a larger set of soft skills. The local higher education system does not emphasize the development of such skills in students. Also, the graduates lack skills such as self-presentation, written or oral communication skills, interview skills, and so on. The level of these skills among the graduates is assessed mostly as below average (by 43 percent of respondents). IT specialists at a senior level require management skills, as they define the ability to manage the project team and make business decisions successfully. At a lower level, the mentioned skills are needed to execute all the tasks given by the superior employee accurately. The bigger the company, the more attention it pays to the sales and marketing skills of the employees. This skill set is not necessary for a software developer, but it is essential for sales and marketing specialists, whose role is frequently underestimated in IT companies. Sales managers provide a continuous flow of new clients to the company and ensure repeat orders from the old ones, while 21 marketing managers increase company recognition in the local and international market and promote the company’s products. Due to the availability of up-to-date technical literature, mostly online and in English, graduates who want to grow professionally have to learn the basics of the language. However, especially in outsourcing companies, about 75 percent of the respondents regard the employees’ knowledge of the English language as below average. English fluency is of paramount importance for outsourcing companies because of their export-oriented services provision. Because of the qualification constraints, the companies tend to recruit junior-level graduates, who have an elementary knowledge and whose motivation and personality fit with the company culture and train them to a certain level using on-the-job training. This practice conditions the relatively low responses about the importance of technical skills. The situation is worse with senior developers due to the lack of high-level qualification training programs, whereas the on-the-job requalification opportunity cost is much higher. The base-level developers are more flexible, because of the combination of their work experience, which ensures a particular knowledge level, and their non-advanced specialization level, which is easier to transform into the narrow specialization required by each company. Figure 13: Levels of the importance of various criteria to hire an employee (%) based on the survey of IT companies Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. As opposed to the current educational system, some companies consider that preparing their future employees with their training programs is more beneficial: several respondents mentioned a preference to recruit and train young people right from school, without the intermediate interference of the university. According to the interviews, currently, the university degree is the least important factor in recruitment by companies. This is a concern that urges both the private sector and educational institutions to work together to close the existing gaps in quality of graduates. Due to the gaps between the university program and industry, job applicants tend to learn upgraded technical knowledge and skills mostly during the probation period in the company. 22 The graduates’ technical knowledge and motivation are the most crucial factors for recruitment decision making, followed by soft skills and salary expectations. After the evaluation of the technical background of the applicant, which is the most important because of an informal working environment, teamwork on projects in sector companies, soft skills, and motivation are key criteria for the selection process. With the declining qualification level, the sector tends to recruit fresh graduates and spends considerable time on training them to a relevant level. Considering the opportunity cost of time spent, the importance of motivation is critical, according to most of the respondents. The companies do not differentiate among the faculties and major specializations of the universities, which show that all of them meet the minimal standards required by companies. Most of the respondents stated that they realize the overall low quality of the graduates and their level of practical knowledge relative to actual employee activities. Moreover, there is no significant difference between the qualifications received in different faculties of universities. Consequently, given the presence of other required selection criteria in the job candidature, the studied disciplines play a negligible role. The Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics (BSUIR) and BSU remain the most preferred universities in the IT sector, with 37 percent and 24 percent of preference, respectively, which is partially conditioned by a large number of disciplines and educational programs, as well as the active presence of laboratories, supported by IT companies, within the universities. The Belarusian National Technical University (BNTU) and Belarus State Economic University (BSEU) follow with 10 percent and 4 percent, respectively. Currently, the training centers are mostly mentioned as sources for preparing beginners and are not considered as an alternative to universities by the companies. 1.2. Demand analysis for qualified IT staff in the real sector Main findings: • At present, a significant number of companies in the real sector do not understand how IT solutions can affect the success of the business in general. In other words, there is no digital business model. • To modernize the IT infrastructure of enterprises in the real sector of the country, reforms in the management of enterprises and training of managers of organizations that will allow IT professionals to apply their knowledge in practice are more necessary than IT specialists with high qualifications. • The key to successful digitalization of the real sector lies in the field of public policy and the changing of managers’ thinking. A similar situation occurs in companies in the real sector, where the demand for IT professionals is growing. Integrated automated production systems, Internet marketing and trading, financial control, and accounting programs can significantly improve the efficiency of the company, but, at the same time, require qualified IT staff to integrate into the existing systems of companies successfully. 23 Figure 14: The most demanded specialists in real sector, percentage of companies Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. The most popular specialties in the real sector are software developers, accounting software developers, Internet marketers, and system administrators. The top 10 vacancies account for 88 percent of the demand in the labor market. The current structure of demand for IT specialists from the real sector indicates that the economy just realizes the importance of the IT industry development. That is why the biggest share of positions is for the development and administration of websites and e-commerce, as well as for support and refining of the existing infrastructure (system administrators and accounting software developers). Specialties, aimed at prospective solutions (for example, system architects and business analysts), account for less than 10 percent of the total number of vacancies. At present, a significant number of companies in the real sector do not understand how IT solutions can affect the success of the business in general. In other words, there is no digital business model. Moreover, a significant number of executives in companies are skeptical about the role of IT in the organization (they think that it is overvalued or that the return on investments is not likely to be justified). There are several reasons for the abovementioned issues • Underdevelopment of IT infrastructure in Belarussian enterprises: • Business processes in the companies are poorly established and documented, which deprives the company of opportunities to competently improve the working process. • Functions of IT departments are unclear. • Heads of the IT departments in the real sector companies (if such department exists) often play a secondary role in the management of the company. They do not participate in the development of the company’s strategy and are not responsible for the activities related to making decisions about the implementation of new technologies. • Company management’s low computer literacy: • Management training courses do not include adequate information about the role of IT in the organization. 24 • Attention is paid only to the basic skills (MS Office, e-mail, and so on). The situation is aggravated by the priorities of contradictory state policies, which are quite contradictory, that is, the government aims to stimulate development of the IT industry and support digitalization (adoption of new laws and decrees), and at the same time it sticks to social policy of employment and is reluctant to pare down the number of workers when it comes to replacement of people with computers. Among the real sector enterprises, the share of state property is very high. The managers of these enterprises require results as soon as possible, while the implementation of new IT solutions is often a long-term investment and managers prefer to invest in on-farm facilities (Capital Expenditure) and then (on a residual basis) in IT infrastructure objects. In public enterprises, when resolving the dilemma of installing new equipment and choosing between more productive but automated and less productive processes, involving manual workers, priority is often given to retaining jobs to the detriment of the overall competitiveness of an enterprise. That is why the demand for highly skilled IT professionals in the real sector is low. Documentation and optimization of business processes should become the first step in the development of the real sector digitalization. In Belarus, organizations need to develop and improve the companies’ culture in the field of business processes and information technologies. For example, medium and large organizations need to define and document the processes in the AS-IS format. The information obtained may potentially give an opportunity to identify bottlenecks in the activities of companies and allow them to properly build the architecture of business processes and identify the specific areas where the implementation of IT tools will be the most effective. We can assume that sooner or later the foreign trends of IT development in the real sector will come to Belarus. Drawing on the analysis of trends in IT vacancies in Western countries, we may identify the following groups of specialties that are of the greatest importance: • Any specialist who can participate in the development process: • Business analysts. Description and formalization of processes in the organization and setting quality standards and the time of the operation based on statistical data. • Automation engineers. Creating robots or automating certain conveyor or routine processes; any IT specialists with an engineering profile who can create new mechanisms and program them, as well as the specialists who can reprogram production equipment for creating new products without buying new machines and involving manual labor in the production process. • IT professionals who are working with various monitoring systems (quality control of parts or production process). The examples of positions in this group may be an engineer in the automation of the production process, a developer of software for machine tools /robots, or an architect of interaction between a person and a robot. • Infrastructural specialists. Creating, programming, and supporting video surveillance systems; monitoring employees’ working hours; creating time recording systems; creating Enterprise Resource Planning systems; creating single CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems; or managing accounting systems for medium and large enterprises. Examples of such positions might be any developer who can create and maintain these systems, system architects, and so on. • Data analysts. Specialists who work with large volumes of information to create statistical systems for quality control of production, analysis of markets, consumers’ behavior, and the creation of the statistical and econometric models for segmentation/forecasting of consumer 25 and market behavior. Examples of such positions might be big data analytics, digital marketing specialists, data scientists, and others. In general, to update the current IT infrastructure in the real sector enterprises, reforms in the training of enterprise managers (mainly the public sector) are important, as well as changes in the labor policies at state enterprises and research and development (R&D) expenses. Figure 15: Industrial revolutions and future view Source: Wikipedia.com. Considering the problems that may slow down the upgrading of the IT infrastructure in the real sector enterprises in Belarus, it is worth noting that the country is situated between the second and third technological levels in the industry, while the global trend is transitioning to the fourth. To ‘catch up’ with global trends, it is necessary to undertake profound reforms in the real sector, which will allow the country to make a technological breakthrough. However, it should be mentioned that these reforms in the short and medium term might lead to an increase in the rate of unemployment, social tensions, and a widening gap in income between the rich and poor. With a high degree of probability, the effect of transitioning to a new technological level in the industry will be revealed only in the long term, which, in turn, also potentially reduces the politicians’ motivation for undertaking such reforms. To make a successful transition to the fourth level, a paradigm shift for managers and an influx of new management personnel into the real sector are necessary. Thus, it is possible to conclude that to modernize the IT infrastructure of enterprises in the real sector of the country, reforms in the management of enterprises and training of managers of organizations that will allow IT professionals apply their knowledge in practice are more necessary than IT specialists with high qualifications. The following measures can accelerate digitization in the real sector: (a) Changing the program of training/retraining of senior and middle managers. An increase in the number of hours or introduction of additional classes in the programs related to the role of IT in organizations (industry/agriculture/health/public administration, and so on). When preparing these courses, the emphasis should be on the specifics of the industry in which the managers operate. 26 (b) The policy of tax incentives for companies that implement new technologies in production. Currently, Belarussian legislation has approved benefits and preferences for companies that carry out innovative activities, but the conditions for obtaining them are blurred, and efforts are disproportionate to the benefits.3 At the same time, many countries in Europe successfully operate programs for obtaining preferences for innovative production, for example, • Companies receive tax incentives and government subsidies if they invest in research and innovation activities; • The right of public research institutes to participate in commercial innovation companies; and • The establishment of intermediary organizations between the business and the technology developer and providing information and methodological support (creating information resources, explaining the procedures for obtaining grants, creating special data banks for patented inventions, and so on). (c) When developing the procedure for granting tax incentives, companies need to create a procedure that will allow ’drop-out’ of unscrupulous innovators (for example, when a company simply replaces equipment with low-technology equipment and thus tries to recover costs faster). (d) Refusal to save jobs ‘at any cost’. The government’s policy to reduce unemployment by directive methods has led to a decrease in employee productivity and excessive labor costs. The rejection of this policy will allow enterprises to introduce systems that are more productive, reduce the wage fund and production costs, and increase its competitiveness. (e) The popularization of innovative projects. Now, modernization in the real sector is almost not promoted: the state media practically does not cover the positive results of modernization and implementation of innovations at enterprises. A significant part of the Belarussian population believes that Belarussian innovative exports are represented only by the IT sector, while companies such as Adani (manufacturing of medical X-ray equipment), Regula (production of high-tech optical equipment), Polimaster (production of radiation monitoring and control equipment), and Izovak (development and optimization of optical coatings) supply their products to more than 60 countries. Their competitors are global corporations such as Siemens, Philips, Hewlett Packard, and others. However, without coverage of this issue, it is rather difficult to understand who exactly is engaged in innovations in the real sector and how successful and competitive these enterprises can be. Thus, the key to successful digitalization of the real sector lies in the field of public policy and the changing of managers’ thinking. This further indicates the need for a wide range of IT specialists in the country, visionaries of digitalization, who will contribute to the successful process of digitalization in the country. The success factor of these specialists will not only be the programming and technical disciplines but also an understanding of processes in the real sector. 3 http://pravo.by/document/?guid=3871&p0=H11200425. 27 1.3. Supply-side analysis of skills gap in the Belarussian ICT industry 1.3.1. Higher education in IT sector - its strengths and weaknesses Main findings: • There are 14 public and private higher educational institutions (HEIs) with about 100 IT-related specializations producing about 3,000 to 3,500 software developers or related specialists annually. • According to the results of the survey, the practical experience gained by students was considered a priority to improve the quality of education. • One of the possible solutions to the problem, based on international experience, is the interaction of universities with representatives of the IT sector. In 2017, the Belarus higher education system included 42 public and 9 private educational, research, and governing institutions that used common official standards and regulations in the process of teaching, assessment, and research. 4 During the past five years, the total number of HEIs has decreased (Figure 16). Most of the institutions are in Minsk (29 HEIs). Figure 16: Number of HEIs Source: The National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus. Higher education is under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, which is responsible for the accreditation and licensing of HEIs and development and implementation of the educational standards. The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus oversees the running of the current educational system. Since 2007, a three-level system of tertiary education has been implemented in Belarus (Figure 17). Training at the first degree level provides students with the expertise, qualification, and Specialist’s Diploma. Training at the second level (master’s degree) is carried out by two types of programs: professionally and research-oriented master’s programs, confirmed by a Master’s Degree Diploma. Graduates of HEIs also have the option to proceed to the third (postgraduate education) level. 4 http://www.kudapostupat.by/zaved/zavsbyobl. 28 Under the Decree of the Ministry of Education No. 389 of 2012, the duration of first degree programs is generally four years (except for five years in medical and arts HEIs). These master’s degree programs last from one to two years. PhD courses usually last for three years and may include one additional year of PhD candidacy course. Figure 17: Levels of higher education in Belarus Source: Civitta team analysis. Belarus has a legislative base that governs social relations in the field of education. The legal foundation consists of the Constitution of Belarus and the acts on education (1991), vocational and technical education (2003), education of persons with disabilities (special education) (2004), general education (2006), and higher education (2007). For the further development of social relations in the field of education, the Education Code of Belarus was adopted on 2011. Over the past five years, public expenditures on education in Belarus have been less than 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). According to the ranking of expenditures on education, 2014, Belarus ranked 83 out of 153 countries, leaving behind countries such as the Russia Federation, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. During the last five years, the number of students in HEIs has decreased (Figure 18). Since 2012, the number of students in HEIs has been declining rapidly every year. In 2016, the number of students per 10,000 people declined by 27 percent as compared to 2012. Figure 18: The student-to-population ratio per 10,000 people Source: The National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus. Belarus has signed some special agreements with the countries that have a national authority responsible for the recognition of foreign degrees and qualifications. Since 1997, Belarus has been a 29 member of Lisbon Recognition Convention (Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region, 1997). Also, in 2015, Belarus joined the Bologna process and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Nevertheless, Belarus should fulfill some obligations that are stipulated in the specially designed road map and undertake some reforms in the education system (including related to the IT education). With regard to international rankings, the United Nations Development Programme ranked Belarus 20 out of 188 countries in its education index rating.5 According to the QS World University Rankings, the BSU is placed 354 and BNTU is ranked 701+.6 Specialized IT departments and faculties were created at leading Belarussian universities more than half a century ago. In 1964, a specialized HEI—Minsk Institute for Radioelectronics (now BSUIR)—was founded. Today, IT related faculties are considered technical faculties in the university, providing students with knowledge of fundamentals and an algorithmic mindset to enable further technical specialization during employment. The relevant majors/disciplines are: • Mathematics and physics; • Informatics and computing systems; • Radiophysics and radiotechnology; and • Automation systems. There are 14 public and private HEIs with about 100 IT related specializations. The list of HEIs that provide IT and engineering specializations are presented in Table 1. Table 1: The list of Belarussian Universities that teach IT UNIVERSITY FACULTY BSUIR Computer-aided design (334 in QS World University Rankings) Information technologies and control Radioengineering and electronics Computer systems and networks Telecommunications Engineering and economics BSU Applied mathematics and computer science Mathematics and mechanics Radiophysics and computer technologies BNTU Information technologies and robotics (ITRF) BSEU Management Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno Mathematics and computer science Francisk Skorina Gomel State University Mathematics Physics Brest State Technical University Electronic and informational systems A.S. Pushkin Brest State University Physics and mathematics Sukhoi State Technical University of Gomel Automation and information systems Polatsk State University Information technologies Academy of Public Administration Under the Aegis of Innovation and technology management the President of the Republic of Belarus BSTU IT Belarussian-Russian University Electrical engineering Vitebsk State University Mathematics 5 http://gtmarket.ru/ratings/education-index/education-index-info#belarus. 6 https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2016. 30 Source: Civitta team analysis. Belarussian IT education cannot be called a driving force of the country’s academic community. One Estonian, five Polish, and seven Russian universities are listed in the top-500 of QS Computer Science Ranking,7 but not a single Belarussian university is listed. Belarussian universities produce about 3,000 to 3,500 software developers or related specialists annually. A total of 14 HEIs in Minsk and the other regions provide various IT specializations for university entrants and the biggest three HEIs—BSUIR, BSU, and BNTU—produce around 70 percent of the software developers in the market. Figure 19: Software developers’ segmentation by universities (2016) Source: dev.by survey. The BSUIR and the BSU, one of the country’s leading universities in the IT sphere, has had a constant inflow of gifted students. The total number of graduates of Belarusian universities who have IT-related specializations is shown in Figure 17. Such a significant growth of graduates in 2017 is caused by the educational reform in Belarus and transition from a five-year to a four-year educational program in universities. 7 https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2016/computer-science- information-systems#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search. 31 Figure 20: The estimation of IT graduates’ number, people Source: Civitta team analysis. It should be noted that Belarus has a good foundation in math and engineering education, which favors the creation of qualified specialists in related professions, who could be very rapidly retrained as IT specialists. Successful participation of the Belarussian school and university students in different international Olympiads and competitions in math and informatics is significant proof of this. In 2016, Belarussian high school students won several medals at the 27th International Olympiad in Informatics8 and the 57th International Mathematical Olympiad.9 The BSU and BSUIR students also occupy high positions at different competitions such as International Mathematics Competition for Students and ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest.10 However, despite all these achievements, unfortunately, Belarussian universities are not able to prepare skilled personnel in the right proportion to industrial demand. Such a conclusion can be made because various extension and retraining courses are now beginning to appear even within IT companies. Also, despite the fact that Belarusian universities provide good math and engineering education, they do not have enough physics education foundations to prepare a skilled workforce to meet the needs of the IT sector. This can be proved by the results of the survey made by Civitta through IT companies, representatives of IT education sector, and students (Figure 21). According to the survey methodology, survey participants should define whether the skills of graduates of educational institutions correspond to the needs of the company on a scale from ‘do not meet company’s requirements at all’ to ‘meet company’s requirements’. The survey results show that none of the representatives of the IT sector state that the graduates had enough skills to meet the needs of the IT companies. At the same time, the academics’ opinion is quite similar: only 16 percent of the survey participants think that graduates of their universities receive high-quality education and skills to meet the IT companies’ requirements. In turn, the students’ opinions are closer to the opinion of the IT sector (their future job places). 8 http://www.park.by/post-955/. 9 http://www.imo-official.org. 10 https://icpc.baylor.edu/community/results-2016. 32 Figure 21: Results of the survey on skills of graduates and requirements of IT companies Source: Civitta team analysis. According to the results of the survey, the practical experience gained by students was seen as a priority to improve the quality of education (Figure 22). Figure 22: Results of the survey on possible ways to improve the quality of IT education Source: Civitta team analysis. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2013),11 in Russia, which has a system of education close to the system of education for Belarus, the program in HEIs often has a highly specialized character, that is, oriented to the needs of specific sectors of the economy. Graduates of these specialties find it more difficult to find work outside their industry. Moreover, the insufficient interaction of employers with the educational system increases the gap 11 http://www.oecd.org/education/eag2013%20(eng)--FINAL%2020%20June%202013.pdf. 33 between the skills of graduates and the requirements of companies. One of the possible solutions to the problem, based on international experience, is the interaction of universities with representatives of the IT sector. Based on these interactions, the universites can create training programs that meet the requirements of IT companies and provide students with practical experience, as well as a significant increase in the share of practice. This follows the example of Denmark and Switzerland, where students spend a significant part of the educational program on internships. The most frequent comment of respondents was the desire to improve the current curricula and exclude from them humanitarian disciplines such as pedagogy and philosophy. One way to improve the current programs is to shift from traditional teaching methods to more innovative and creative ones. This allows developing communication skills in addition to learning new technologies. For example, in Finland, when studying economic disciplines, instead of traditional teaching methods, joint simultaneous training of several groups by two or more teachers using multidisciplinary and project-oriented teaching aids is used. According to the survey, IT specialists believe that the current professors cannot provide the necessary level of IT education. Therefore, they believe that new professors with practical experience in IT companies should replace the existing ones. To bridge the gap between skills of graduates and requirements of IT companies, large IT companies should start cooperating with the education sector. However, according to the survey’s results, the participation of representatives from the IT sector in the education process has not yet been successful (Figure 23). Figure 23: Results of the survey on the level of the education sector’s cooperation with the IT sector Source: Civitta team analysis. Industry leaders, representing various scientific fields, work together with education systems to find highly qualified young staff for their companies. Some universities have links to the biggest companies in the industry, resulting in job placement straight from the university for some students. Almost all universities cooperate with at least one company that represents the IT sector. It should be noted that EPAM Systems has opened its education laboratories in 12 out of 14 universities that provide IT education. There are 30 such laboratories with 13 different specializations. The second company that has joint education laboratories in universities is the IBA Group. IBA’s cooperation with the country’s leading HEIs includes establishing joint labs, training students, providing HEIs with Internet equipment, providing training in the use of new technologies and products at a discounted price, organizing joint workshops, and so on. As part of the cooperation with 34 the BSU, BSUIR, and GSU (Francisk Skorina Gomel State University), IBA Group has founded seven computer labs; opened teaching and research labs; founded the Academic Center for Technological Competencies at the BSUIR, where IBM technologies and products are taught; and launched the joint BSU-IBA Center. Moreover, IBA supports the BSU’s membership in SAP University Alliances—a global partnership program between SAP and HEIs. It should be mentioned that the top two IT universities (BSU and BSUIR) have the highest number of joint education programs with IT companies (EPAM Systems, IBM, Abiatec, EffectiveSoft, Itransition, IBA, and others). In addition, joint education laboratories with world famous companies such as Microsoft, Huawei, ZTE, and SAP were created. The main aim of such laboratories is to develop high- tech products and implement some important projects for the ICT industry projects in the university. Moreover, the BSUIR became the first university to create a program supported by a private IT company, Wargaming. During this program, Wargaming and Melesta Games professionals conducted classes in disciplines such as video game history, game design, and game concept development. After graduation, students will have job placement in resident companies of the Belarus HTP. 1.3.2. Training courses as an attempt to bridging the skills gap Main findings: • Two-thirds of the surveyed companies have training courses or educational programs to prepare employees. Around 80 percent of all internal courses in IT companies are in English. • The main objective of the training centers in IT companies is to prepare junior specialists with specific skill sets to meet its demand, while the second aim is to satisfy the growing demand for IT education. • Training centers initiated by the companies prepare specialists who meet quality standards, and the majority of such specialists are automatically employed. According to the respondents from IT companies, the level of university graduates is low and requires additional training to reach the company’s requirements. On-the-job training provides the graduates with the necessary technical knowledge and specific requirements of the company without spending much time. Based on this notion, most of the companies prefer to train their junior employees themselves. Two-thirds of the surveyed companies have training courses or educational programs to prepare employees and most of them are fully paid. On average, a newly hired employee in an IT company requires up to six months to complete the on-the-job training phase and become a qualified professional. 35 Figure 24: Share of the companies that provide internal training courses (percentage of the surveyed companies), their average duration (weeks), and payment terms (percentage of the surveyed companies) Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. Around 80 percent of all internal courses in IT companies are in English. English fluency is highly important for outsourcing companies as they provide services to foreign countries, as well as for product companies to find clients and investors abroad. The average duration of English courses in companies is 52–53 weeks, which is much longer than learning other skill sets, as the level of knowledge varies widely among the employees. The second popular internal course is technical skills learning, followed by soft and management skills. The average duration of these courses varies between 5 and 9 weeks, depending on the level of training. In 97 percent of the surveyed companies, training courses and educational programs are paid for completely or mostly by the company. For various reasons, whether the company is small or the employees require some specific expertise, external courses come useful. Around 68 percent of the surveyed companies responded that they send their employees to educational centers in Belarus and abroad to provide all the necessary competencies for their personnel. Around 69 percent of the surveyed companies focus on educational programs to develop new technical skills, which are not available in internal trainings. English language courses are the least popular external courses as the majority of the companies manage to provide it internally. Half of the surveyed companies pay the full tuition fee for the employees’ educational programs outside the company; 90 percent of the rest covers the biggest part of the training costs. Figure 25: Share of the companies that provide external training courses (percentage of the surveyed companies), their average duration (weeks), and payment terms (percentage of the surveyed companies) Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. For graduates who are unemployed, the gaps that prevent them from getting a job in the IT sector are being partially filled by the increasing role of vocational training providers. Two types of training centers are currently operating in the country. The first type is the one supported by IT companies, such as EPAM, SAM Solutions, A1QA, and others. The second type of vocational education is provided by private educational centers, which in some cases can specialize only in IT activities or offer IT 36 courses along with other vocational education programs. Examples of such initiatives are the computer academy ‘STEP’, educational center ‘Leader’, HTP educational center ‘IT academy’, and others. The number of educational centers has significantly increased in recent years due to the huge difference in average salaries between IT and other industries, which led to the boost in demand for IT educational services. Figure 26: Expansion of IT educational centers in Belarus, number of centers Source: Civitta Consulting company analysis. The main objective of the training centers in IT companies is to prepare junior specialists with specific skill sets to meet the demand, while the second aim is to satisfy the growing demand for IT education. According to the interviews with industry players, after graduation from the companies’ training center, the best graduates receive job offers. The rest have no legal obligations to the training company and are free to find employment in other companies. Educational centers’ services have significant demand from both the students and junior-level working professionals. Despite providing paid trainings, the educational centers see a constant increase in demand for their services. Students attend practical trainings to acquire basic knowledge of programming languages and develop soft skills. Table 2: Training centers in IT companies and educational centers comparison Training centers in IT Educational centers companies Technical courses Available Available Nontechnical development courses Not available Available Technical knowledge and Prerequisites None algorithmic thinking Screening Competitive selection None Course price Free US$80–US$1,000 Annual number of graduates per year 350 2,800 Internship Available Depends on the center Regularity On demand On regular basis Source: Civitta Consulting company analysis, dev.by. The estimated growth in a number of students is based on the flexibility and practical use of curricula that the centers provide depending on the market need. Although some of the centers are 37 concentrated in a particular domain (for example, web design, software development, and so on), they have no difficulties in shifting to respond to market changes. On the other hand, educational centers such as ‘IT academy’, ‘Step’, and others provide a vast variety of IT courses in different disciplines like business analysis, management, English for IT, testing, and software development. The current market information is available through the centers’ connections with companies and the instructors, which work in a real sector and are familiar with ongoing trends. This helps provide entry- level employment for students, thus fostering the demand for training centers. Figure 27: The share of educational centers to provide the following courses, percentage Source: Civitta Consulting company analysis. There are both short-term trainings with a minimum of six hours activity and long-term trainings with several levels that last up to 11–12 months in total (approximately 360 hours). The courses consist of a theoretical part with practical application in a project that the trainees are usually given as homework. Vocational educational courses pay attention to soft skills too In December 2017, ECLAB (European College of Liberal Arts in Belarus) and IT-school Myfreedom launched an educational program aimed at combining training in practical IT competencies, natural- science courses, and project management. The training program will include six modules that can be combined into three sets of skills: • The development of technical skills: HTML typography, UX/UI design, Java Script, and so on • The development of soft skills: rhetoric, system thinking, social orientation, creative thinking, high technology overview, and so on • Project management and agile: SCRUM methodology, project management, time management, conflictology and motivation, flexibility and stress resistance, and working and interaction within groups and teams The prerequisites for the trainings vary from center to center and from discipline to discipline. Compared to the training centers in IT companies with difficult screening process, there is no competitive selection among the students in educational centers, but basic knowledge of the fundamentals might be required depending on the level of the chosen training. For example, ‘IT academy’ provides mobile programming trainings; thus, knowledge of the corresponding programming language is a precondition for working on Android, iOS, or other mobile platforms. 38 The availability of internship programs in educational centers is under way. The ‘IT academy’ collaborates with some IT companies to provide 4–5-month internship programs, during which students undertake a real project and report to companies. Upon the successful completion of the project, companies hire an intern on a permanent basis. Currently, educational centers do not maintain official statistics on the employment of their graduates; nevertheless, due to the ongoing relationship between the companies and graduates, the information is informally accessible. In spite of a great number of entrants, the share of graduates who are employed is rather low. The main reason is a significant gap in average salaries between the IT sector and other industries, which attracts a large number of people who are willing to earn US$1,500 per month without significant efforts. They are not motivated and do not pay attention to the educational program, and usually, their competencies are not sufficient for IT companies. Figure 28: Number of graduates from educational centers, 2017, people Source: Civitta Consulting company analysis, interviews with experts. Training centers initiated by the companies prepare specialists who meet their quality standards and most of these specialists are automatically employed. These types of educational establishments do not charge fees but have limited places and select only the best candidates based on their technical knowledge and mathematical/algorithmic aptitude. Classes are intentionally small, as the management believes that a high number of students in the classroom compromises the overall quality of the education process. The trainings last longer and replace a significant portion of university education. 39 Figure 29: Number of graduates from IT companies’ training courses, 2017, people Source: Civitta Consulting company analysis, interviews with experts. Currently, there is a huge demand for professional training programs for senior-level specialists in both the IT and high-technology subsectors. The general trend with the senior developers reveals a narrow specialization tendency, which is relevant to the employer’s company. Owing to the absence of such trainings, the costs of recruiting and requalifying senior specialists are very high for the companies. Base-level specialists tend to be promoted from junior specialists within the company environment; nevertheless, the respondents confirmed that in a case of training availability, the demand for senior developers would be considerable. The role of vocational education in the Belarus IT sphere is increasing each year to meet the demand for IT specialists. The advantages of vocational education will secure its further growth: • Convenience—courses in educational and training centers are usually not longer than one year; students can attend classes in the evenings after their work. • Lower price compared to higher education and master’s programs. • Variety of disciplines, professors, and approaches. The disadvantages of vocational education will not allow it to fully satisfy the IT market demand, based on the following reasons: • Most of the training centers provide education only for junior specialists or applicants without experience. • The qualifications of most of the graduates will not allow them to be hired by IT companies. Apparently, these vocational initiatives are not enough to completely solve all the problems of IT education. The training of quality professionals should start from a very early age, by introducing appropriate components into school and preschool education programs. Currently, IT education for schoolchildren is poorly developed and is usually implemented with the help of private initiatives. 40 School Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in Belarus Currently, small private educational centers are functioning in Belarus. The main aim of these establishments is to acquaint schoolchildren with the basics of mathematics, physics, engineering, and robot technologies. Such centers are mainly located in Minsk and that sidelines students from other regions. In addition, various activities aimed to familiarize the younger generation with the IT industry and professions of the future are organized in Belarus by private initiatives. For example, since 2017, the association ‘Education for the Future’ has been functioning. The goal of the association is the development and support of educational initiatives and projects. The association aims to • Popularize STEM disciplines among schoolchildren; • Solve the problem of vocational education and training today's schoolchildren for professions of the future; and • Stimulate the improvement of IT education in school programs. Below are some examples of events and activities carried out by the association. • ‘IT-vacation’ provides free excursions and lectures for schoolchildren in well -known Belarussian IT companies (EPAM Systems, Tut Bay Media, Yandex, Vizor Games, Rozum Robotics, and so on), where pupils are introduced to the IT industry, existing professions, and challenges dealt with by the industry specialists. • ‘TRIZ-Hakathon’ is an event for senior pupils. The main objective is the development of unconventional problem-solving techniques and creative and inventive skills by solving unconventional problems. It is worth highlighting that the School of Robotics as another example of successful private initiatives. It unites more than 40 educational centers across Belarus, providing comprehensive training programs for children of junior and middle school ages in four streams: engineering, robotics, mobile development, and programming. In the United Kingdom, the problem of the lack of skilled IT specialists is addressed through a drastic change in the school educational program. Since 2014, a new ITC educational school program has been launched. According to the program, grade 1 pupils are taught how to write algorithms and are expected to start coding by the end of the first year of education, and in the future seventh-graders will learn to use more than two programming languages to develop creative projects. The program has already been in operation for three years and it is too early to draw conclusions, but obvious advantages of this approach are the following: familiarization of students with modern programming languages and techniques and provision for all pupils to explore the IT sphere. Based on the abovementioned, it is possible to conclude that the core problem of the Belarussian IT sector is not the insufficient number of the specialists but their qualification. 41 Figure 30: Estimation of IT specialists’ supply and demand gap, people Source: Civitta Consulting company survey. 1.3.3. Systemic shortcomings of Belarussian education The education system today is not ready for the challenges of the modern society: every day the gap between higher education and modern requirements for education increases. This problem equally affects all the spheres of economy including the IT industry and so it is extremely difficult to develop only one domain (IT) when the overall system conditions are poor. It is necessary to significantly improve the system of education at all levels: from school to higher education. The main systemic shortcomings of Belarussian education are the following: (a) Excessive regulation of the educational process. Belarussian legislation strictly regulates most aspects of the educational process, including • Formation of curricula; • Types of training sessions; • Distribution of different types of classes; • Number of lectures; and • Number of optional courses and so on. These restrictions make it difficult to implement changes and adapt the educational process to the new approaches and technologies and significantly delay the introduction of curricula relevant to the labor market. (b) Insufficient flexibility and efficiency. The existing system for the development, review, and approval of educational standards, curricula, and programs does not facilitate their rapid updating. The HEIs’ disciplines should be determined by faculties and graduating departments and their programs should be later approved at the departments. It is necessary to de- bureaucratize the procedure for opening new specialties, to simplify the forms of the 42 educational and methodological documentation being developed. The normative and methodological base does not keep up with new forms of organization of the educational process. Webinars, the management of the creation of educational content by the trainees and its discussion in the networks, the integration of the courses from the open education systems into the educational process, and much more in the training are not used. (c) Formality of approach of recruiting students for new specialties. De jure, the Ministry of Education, in agreement with the real sector, determines the number of student’s specialties. De facto, at the request of universities, each year companies send a formal request to educational institutions. In conjunction with the lack of motivation of the teaching staff to develop new programs, this leads to a catastrophic obsolescence of the curricula and an even greater separation of education from the real sector. (d) Structure and level of remuneration of professors in universities. Excessive regulation of the education system also applies to labor remuneration. Legislation regulates the types of work and the amount paid. In particular, there is no provision for the development of new programs and new forms of training. Professors have no motivation to change the educational programs and implement new approaches, which leads to obsolescence of the teaching materials and methods taught. (e) The average salary of a university teacher does not correspond to the average salary in the IT industry, which leads to a flow of qualified teaching staff to IT companies (the expression ‘teacher is a failed programmer’ is used). This trend negatively affects the quality and prestige of IT education in the Republic of Belarus and, in particular, the lack of its practical component. (f) Along with the low wages of professors, there is another problem. Most of the best students start working in IT companies when they are in the third or even in the second academic year. They stop actively learning, thus, gaining minimum knowledge. Such students gain actual practical skills, but at the university they do not gain fundamental knowledge, which, in future, will help them build a career either as a teacher or a scientist and work in a knowledge-based IT industry. In practice, these problems are hardest to overcome in future. (g) Personnel crisis. There is no increase in young teaching staff who remain in IT education. Most of the best graduates find jobs at Belarussian enterprises or abroad. Most of those who stay in universities also leave them after the defense of the thesis. As a rule, those who stay in universities also work in IT companies at the same time, spending most of the time there and not engaging in scientific and methodological works. The main problem in retaining teaching personnel is that the wages of a young teacher are at times lesser than the wages of a young IT professional. (h) Compound crisis of IT education. Today there is a huge gap between the nomenclature of specialties of the first and second levels of higher education and the professions of IT specialists. In fact, in Belarus there are no specialties that provide education for specific professional activities such as software researcher, system architect, business analyst, specialist in computer-assisted testing, and so on. IT companies hire young professionals from certain departments and universities without focusing on their specialties. Nowadays, universities with a certain staffing potential cannot form actual IT specialties. They create new names of specialties but do not care about the content. It should be noted that IT companies also are not engaged in the process of making new or closing non-actual specialties. Another problem of structuring is connected with the transition to a four-year period of study at the first level of higher education. The curriculum of the four-year education was developed when the terms and conditions of study in the master’s program were unknown. A new curriculum was formed on ‘in the four years to teach what has been taught in five years’ basis, not including opportunities for further education in the master’s program or in IT courses. 43 Figure 31: Average salaries, BYN/hour Source: Civitta analysis. (i) Formality of practice. The transition to a four-year duration of training led to a reduction in few practical classes. Obviously, companies are not interested in spending resources on a specialist who comes to them for several weeks. The basic scenario of practice is the student writing a formal report on practice. Also, the company’s task is to sign and put a stamp on this report. Of course, in this case, the student does not receive practical knowledge. It is worth mentioning that now in Belarussian universities the attitude toward internship is quite formal from the companies’ side as well. The management of state companies and authorities understand that the possibility that the student will return to them after an internship for full-time employment is minimal, because of the noncompetitive salary conditions. In turn, in private enterprises, managers are not interested in internships because it requires significant expenditure of money and time to teach students the specifics of a particular job, while the internship itself, as a rule, is of short duration. Thus, the lack of practical understanding of the specifics of the chosen occupation and the low level of remuneration of young specialists explain the fact that after graduation most of the students do not work accordingly to their specialty. This problem is closely related to the lack of practical experience among most of the university professors too. As a result, students often choose their faculty in the hopes of receiving not a set of knowledge of the particular profession but only a specific set of tools that will help them in their further development. Only then, after realizing their real professional interests and preferences and having learned a foreign language, do they go to receive education in a narrow specialization, often outside of Belarus. (j) Motivational crisis. As noted earlier, many students in the third or fourth academic year are less motivated to pursue higher education. These students start working as programmers or testers in IT companies, without a bachelor’s degree and receive fair wages. The loss of motivation and lack of time are the major reasons for the decrease in student’s activities at universities. In this case, it is difficult to assess the number of students who would be suitable for researching or teaching. The second stage of the motivational crisis is the lack of willingness to continue getting formal education for unskilled IT employees. It is so much easier to sustain the current level of education through self-education, short courses, and new practices. In conditions of high wages, employees are not highly motivated to achieve new levels of professional excellence through formal education. This applies not only to IT specialists but also to all managers who will work in digital transformation. 44 2. Gender gaps in Belarussian IT sector Main findings: • Compared to 2012, the share of women in the Belarus IT sphere has grown 1.6 times. • Most of the women in the industry can be found in the HR department—almost 100 percent of all employees here are women. • Two-thirds of women who hold technical positions in Belarussian IT companies consider that they are underpaid in comparison with men who are at the same level. Compared to 2012, the share of women in the Belarus IT sphere has grown 1.6 times. Nevertheless, the indicator stays at a low level: in 2016, it decreased slightly in comparison with 2015 maximum and amounted to almost a fifth of the whole personnel in the industry. Figure 32: Share of women employed in IT sphere in Belarus, percentage of total number of industry employees Source: dev.by. Such a low level of women’s employment in the IT industry is typical globally. Even in the most developed North European countries, where a lot of attention is paid to gender equality in the labor market, the level of women’s employment in ICT does not exceed 22 percent. The Belarussian level of women’s employment in IT is higher than the EU average. Nonetheless, there are examples to strive for—in neighboring Lithuania and Latvia, the indicator is 24.8 percent, or every fourth employee. 45 Figure 33: Share of women in ITC-industry by country and regions, 2016, percentage of total number of industry employees Source: Eurostat. Note: *Data for 2015. Apart from this, the Belarussian level of women’s employment in the IT sphere is less than the level in international IT companies. Figure 34: Comparison of women in the IT sphere in Belarus and international IT companies, 2014 –2016, percentage of total number of industry employees Source: Eurostat. A more significant gender gap can be observed if we analyze the data within each IT specialty—we can conclude that if only technical specialties are taken, then women’s employment is even lower—for example, the level of women’s employment among developers and team leads does not exceed 10 percent and for system administrators the indicator is lower than 5 percent. Most of the women in the IT industry can be found in the HR department—almost 100 percent of all employees here are women. There are also a lot of women employees among technical writers and sales managers—67 percent and 55 percent, respectively. 46 Figure 35: Share of women’s employment in the IT sphere in Belarus by specialty, percentage of total number of employees Source: dev.by. The main reason for the existing gender gap is the low share of women among the alumni of relevant educational institutions. For example, the large share of women who are in the IT sphere are from the alumni of the Faculty of Engineering and Economics in the BSUIR—the indicator is twice higher than the industry average. The lowest score belongs to the faculty of radiophysics and computer technologies—among 15 alumni, there is only 1 woman. The low share of female alumni is also observed in the Information Technologies and Robotics Faculty (ITRF) BNTU and Computer Systems and Networks (CSN) BSUIR. Figure 36: Share of female alumni of ICT-related faculties of Belarussian HEIs, percentage of total number of ICT-related faculties’ alumni Source: dev.by. The research also indicates the existence of gender pay gap in the industry. For example, female designers, developers, team leads, and testers are the worst affected. Such results are confirmed by the employees themselves—two-thirds of women who occupy technical positions in Belarussian IT companies consider that they are underpaid in comparison with men who are at the same level positions. 47 Figure 37: Gender monthly pay gap in IT industry within specialties, US$ Source: dev.by. It is expected that the higher the level of women’s employment in the position, the fewer the pay gaps will be: meaning that the fewest gaps will be observed among technical writers, sales managers, and HR managers. However, even among the employees of the HR department, where there is a majority of women, the monthly salary for men is US$300 higher. It is worth emphasizing that gender disproportion in developers’ salary grows simultaneously with the level: the monthly pay gap for junior developers amounts to US$100, or 17 percent, whereas the gap for senior developers amounts to US$600 (25 percent). As a comparison, the global average level of pay gap in the ICT sphere amounts to 25 percent. Thus, with regard to gender differences in the IT industry, Belarus is corresponding to the global indicators. 48 3. IT master’s programs analysis 3.1. Demand side - The results of survey Almost all the categories of respondents consider the need for postgraduate education (89 percent versus 11 percent). Students have the highest percentage of negative attitude with regard to the necessity of additional education, and a majority of academics are convinced of its necessity. Figure 38: The attitude of the IT sector specialists, students, and academics to the need for additional postgraduate education Source: Civitta’s survey. Simultaneously, different categories of specialists have different ways of assessing the need for additional education for various categories of specialists. With regard to designing the program content, one should be guided by the opinion of the real sector, which believes that the most demand will be for a master’s program for architects, designers of complex systems, technical specialists (developers), project managers, and R&D specialists. Figure 39: Types of specialists, for whom the master’s program will be most in demand Source: Civitta’s survey. 49 According to most of the respondents, the optimal duration of the program is 9–18 months (closer to 9). Moreover, over half of those surveyed indicated that the duration of the program should be less than 9 months and only 10 percent was convinced that the duration of the program should be more than 18 months. Figure 40: The preferences of IT specialists about the duration of the IT program Source: Civitta’s survey. All the stakeholders placed professors, who have real business experience in IT, first among the criteria for a high-quality master-level program. It is worth noting that only 76 percent of academics have such experience. Among them 44 percent are dual job holders now. The second important criterion of a high-quality master’s program is practical training in the IT sector that is also connected with the practical orientation of the master’s program. It is a widely held view of respondents that the share of practical classes in additional education should be more than 60 percent. The third criterion of a high-quality master’s program is the option to choose courses that will be the most useful. Here the difference in perception of the requirements of IT and the educational sector can be noted. The education sector considers such an option as twice less significant than the IT sector does. The fourth important criterion is teaching in English. This is explained by the generally low level of English among graduates. Speakers from foreign universities and internships abroad are much less significant factors than those that were mentioned earlier. It is important to note that much more frequently than IT specialists, academics consider guarantee of employment after receiving a diploma and a rather formal attribute of education such as getting a certificate of the state standard as more important. 50 Figure 41: Key attributes of a high-quality educational program according to the opinion of specialists of education sector, IT sector, and students Source: Civitta’s survey. The main problem of IT education in Belarus—its theoretical orientation—resonates with requirements of the master’s programs. All the participants of the IT industry assess factors such as undergoing practice sessions as the most important. Figure 42: Preferable share of practical classes in additional education, percentage Source: Civitta’s survey. The most common perception of all the respondents is that the main component of the master’s program should be focused on the market demand, offering new-style lectures of modern and contemporary technical skills (machine learning, artificial intellect, neural nets) coupled with soft skills’ disciplines and participation in real cases. Technical disciplines were considered the most important and essential from the point of view of students (61 percent) and academics (69 percent), while specialists from the IT industry consider soft skills’ disciplines (that improve level of communication and self-expression and develop the ability to 51 work in a team) more important (47 percent). Among the technical disciplines, there are artificial intelligence, business intelligence, business analysis, machine learning, programming architecture, and others. English was the most widely used language by students (21 percent). Specialists from the IT industry consider disciplines such as maths and humanitarian unimportant (0 percent respectively). Figure 43: The disciplines considered the most important by students, IT specialists, and academics Source: Civitta’s survey. Based on the market demand, the most crucial features of a successful master’s program should be the following: • Staff assistance for a high-quality master’s program should include professors who have real business experience in IT. • The program should have practical trainings in the IT sector. • The master-level students should have the right to choose courses that will be the most useful to them from their point of view. Subsequent to the results of the survey, the most demanded category of IT specialists for the master’s degree are R&D specialists, technical specialists, architects, designers of complex systems, and project managers. The master’s programs which would correlate with the requirements of the real industry and, in particular, produce qualified specialists in the abovementioned areas will be more competitive and beneficial for the state. 3.2. Supply side - Existing Belarussian IT master’s programs There are about 50 IT master’s programs at 16 universities in Belarus. They comprise subjects such as Computing Machines and Systems, Web Programming and Internet Technologies, System Analysis, Information Management and Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Electronic Government, Informatics and Software Development Technologies, Applied Mathematics and Informatics, Applied Сomputer Data Analysis, Algorithms and Systems for Big Data Processing, and Methods and Systems Of Information Security. The curriculums are built in accordance with national regulations, particularly, the Educational Code of the Republic of Belarus. Each curriculum consists of 52 • The complex of candidate exams and tests disciplines; and • The complex of special education, which includes • A state component; and • A university component with some elective disciplines. A complex of candidate exams and tests disciplines, as a rule, consists of three disciplines (for example, Fundamentals of Information Technology, Foreign Language, Philosophy, and Methodology of Science). The state component includes obligatory constant disciplines that are established for a certain master’s program at the state level and universities cannot change them. Nevertheless, universities have the right to establish their complex of disciplines, which is called a university component. The university component may include some elective disciplines. According to the Belarussian legislation, it is recommended to provide disciplines for the choice of a master’s program up to 70 percent of the volume of study hours of a component of the university or about 7 percent of all courses according to the curriculums that were analyzed. De facto, the share of elective disciplines in the current Belarussian master’s programs is much less. It is important to note that according to the Civitta’s survey, about 37 percent of all the respondents consider the option to choose courses that they like as the main attribute of a high-quality program. Figure 44: Percentage of respondents, who consider the possibility to choose courses that they like the main attribute of a high-quality program Source: Civitta’s survey. According to the Belarussian legislation, it is also allowed to provide a master’s student with independent work up to 90 percent of the total master’s program workload. This percentage includes lectures with online broadcasting, online seminars, and so on. The average share of independent work of students among the Belarussian IT master’s programs is approximately 79.4 percent. The duration of most of the Belarussian master’s programs is one year of full-time education (2,268 academic hours). Only two current IT master’s programs at the BSU have a duration of two years (4,536 academic hours). There are two types of master’s programs at the BSUIR. If a postgraduate student completes a four-year bachelor program, he or she would be offered a two-year master’s program. However, if a student completes a five-year bachelor program, he/she would be offered a one-year master’s program. The Belarussian IT master’s programs have exceptional cases of studies abroad. The Belarussian IT master’s programs’ average share of practice totals 6 percent. This percentage is rather similar among IT master’s programs at different Belarussian universities: it is 7 percent in the BSU and 6 percent in BSUIR. In addition to the low percentage of practical classes, the formal approach mentioned earlier is a feature of master’s programs as well. Nevertheless, according to the Belarussian IT industry, the share of practical classes should not be less than 67 percent of the total workload. The structure of the average curriculums of the Belarussian IT master’s programs, the BSU master’s programs, and the BSUIR master’s programs is rather similar. The average share of scientific research in the BSU’s master’s program is 28 percent that is less, by 3.4 percent, than the average share of scientific research in all Belarussian master’s programs. However, the BSU’s master’s programs have approximately equal shares of foreign languages; humanitarian disciplines (Philosophy and 53 Methodology of Science, Pedagogy, Psychology of the Higher School, and so on); and evaluation exams as 11 percent, 7 percent, and 12 percent, respectively. There is a much higher share of technical disciplines in the BSU master’s programs that could be attributed to the fact that the BSU master’s programs do not include any soft skills disciplines. Furthermore, the average share of soft skills disciplines among the Belarussian IT master’s program is extremely low at 1.5 percent. At the same time, specialists from the IT industry are convinced that such disciplines should become the main components of a high-quality master’s program, as they are essential for the project and top managers (24 percent of IT employees consider themselves to be specialists, for whom the master’s program will be most in demand). In the question of the most meaningful disciplines, the response rate was 60 percent for soft skills disciplines and 56 percent for technical disciplines. Figure 45: Structure of average curriculum of master’s programs at Belarussian universities a and new master’s program Source: The official websites of Belarussian universities. Note: a. According to 52 Belarussian master’s programs as of June 15, 2017. There are eight IT master’s programs at the BSU. The subjects are Applied Mathematics and Informatics, Web Programming and Internet Technologies, Applied Computer Data Analysis, Algorithms and Systems for Big Data Processing, Methods and Systems of Information Security, Mathematical Support and Software for Information Security, Hardware and Software of information Security, Mathematical Support, and Software for Mobile Devices. These programs offer the degrees Master of Physical and Mathematical Science, Master of Science in Mathematics and Information Technology, or Master of Applied Mathematics and Information Technology. The total number of prospective master’s programs is 249.The highest enrollment plan is for specialties such as Hardware and Software of information Security (28 master’s programs), Applied Mathematics and Informatics (40 master’s programs), and Algorithms and Systems for Big Data Processing (64 master’s programs). 54 Figure 46: BSU’s enrollment plan by programs, people Source: BSU’s official website. There are 13 IT master’s programs at the BSUIR. Some of them are precisely the same as what is being offered at the BSU. The subjects of the different programs are Information Radiotechnologies; Computer Technologies for Designing Electronic Systems; System Analysis, Management and Information Processing; Computing Machines and Systems, Mathematical Modelling, Numerical Methods, and Program Complexes; Mathematical Software of Computers, Complexes, and Computer Networks; Informatics and Software Development Technologies; Technologies of Virtualization and Cloud Computing; Processing Big Data; Automation and Management of Technological Processes and Industries; Artificial Intelligence; and Fundamentals of Theoretical Informatics. The total number of prospective master’s programs is 709. The highest enrollment plan is for specialties such as Technologies of Virtualization and Cloud Computing (75 students), Computer Technologies for Designing Electronic Systems (84 students), Mathematical and Software of Computers, and Complexes and Computer Networks (107 students). Table 3: BSUIR’s master’s programs enrollment plan, people BSUIR’s master’s program Enrollment plan Technologies of Virtualization and Cloud Computing 12 Hardware and Software of Information Security 12 Methods and Systems of Information Security 24 Mathematical Modelling, Numerical Methods, and Program Complexes 29 Artificial Intelligence 48 Informatics and Software Development Technologies 58 Processing Big Data 60 System Analysis, Management, and Information Processing 63 Information Radio technologies 66 Fundamentals of Theoretical Informatics 71 Technologies of Virtualization and Cloud Computing 75 Computer Technologies for Designing Electronic Systems 84 Mathematical and Software of Computers, Complexes, and Computer Networks 107 TOTAL: 709 Source: BSUIR’s official website. 55 3.3. Belarussian IT master’s programs in the sphere of complex systems Nowadays, there are only two master specialties in the field of large systems, project management and public sector in Belarus. The master speciality ‘System Analysis, Management, and Processing of Information’ is offered at five Belarussian universities (BSU, BSUIR, BSTU, BNTU, and Belarus-Russia University), while the master speciality ‘Electronic Government Degree Master of Administration’ is offered at the Academy of Public Administration under the Aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus and Belarus State Academy of Telecommunications. In Belarus, the average duration of a full- time master’s program is one year. The main professional areas of graduates of the specialty ‘System Analysis, Management, and Processing of Information’ are computer programming, consulting and other related services, and activities in the field of information services, scientific R&D, and higher education. The main professional areas of graduates of the specialty ‘Electronic Government Degree Master of Administration’ are computer programming, consulting and other related services, data processing, R&D, public administration, management in the social and economic sphere, and provision of public services to society. There are no master’s programs in the field of Complex Integrated Systems Design in Belarus. Meanwhile, it is an extremely applicable discipline because of the growing digitalization of the economy’s development overall. Development of the digital economy entails the creation of new complex systems in the fields of public administration, manufacturing, energy, logistics, trade, health, and education. Table 4: Comparison of master’s programs ‘System Analysis, Management, and Processing of Information’, ‘Electronic Government’, and new master’s program ‘Complex Integrated Systems Design’ Criteria System Analysis, Electronic Government Complex Management, and Integrated Processing of Systems Design Information (new program) Professional areas • Computer • Computer • Computer programming, programming, consulting, programming, consulting and and other related services consulting, other related • Data processing and other services; • R&D related • Activities in • Public administration services the field of • Management in the • Data information social and economic processing services, sphere and provision of • R&D, and • Scientific public services to society. • Higher R&D, and higher education. education. Soft skills (%) — — 5 Foreign language — — — International orientation — — ✓ Share of practice (%) 5 7 33 Share of independent 79 83 80 work (%) Share of R&D (%) 31 33 21 Source: Official websites of Belarussian universities. 56 3.4. Benchmarking with the best comparable foreign examples Seven IT master’s programs in the fields of complex integrated computer systems and digital transformation have been analyzed: IT Leadership (National University of Singapore, Singapore); e- Governance Technologies and Services (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia); Computer Systems Design (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia); Computer Systems (Rezekne University of Applied Sciences, Latvia); Cybersecurity Management (BA School of Business and Administration, Latvia); Governance of Digitalization (Abo Akademi University, Finland); Erasmus Mundus Master’s programs: Pervasive Computing and COMmunications for sustainable development (University of Lorraine (France); Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland); Luleå University of Technology (Sweden); and Public Sector Innovation and e-Governance (PIONEER) (KU Leuven, University of Münster and the Tallinn University of Technology). IT Leadership (National University of Singapore, Singapore, QS World University Ranking - # 10). The Master of Technology in IT Leadership program (MTech ITL) at the National University of Singapore is best suited for IT managers, experienced business managers, and directors with IT portfolio management responsibilities who want to further build their career as IT and business leaders. It is also relevant to current IT leaders who wish to build an academic foundation to effectively innovate, lead, and execute IT and digital transformation. E-Governance Technologies and Services (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, EECA university rankings Ranking - #87). Estonia’s e-government and the country’s other innovative e-solutions have grown into one of Europe’s success stories of the last decade. Various theories and approaches have been created on the state level to develop and link together different technologies to implement e- governance practices on a state, local, and individual levels. The master’s program in e-Governance Technologies and Services gives students’ a broad knowledge about the makings of a modern state— the transition to e-governance, its management, and development. Computer Systems Design (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia) and Computer Systems (Rezekne University of Applied Sciences, Latvia, EECA university rankings Ranking - #47). The Computer and Systems Engineering Master's program focuses on the education of designing and using modern complex computer systems. Nowadays computer systems are used more or less everywhere, they are extremely diverse, and most of them are ‘invisible’ to users. Such systems include not only traditional PCs and sophisticated supercomputers but also computer systems that are ‘embedded’ into cars and mobile phones, for instance. These embedded systems can be either stand-alone items or an integral part of a larger system and represent the combination of software and hardware designed to perform specific functions. That is why Computer Systems Design and Computer Systems program at Tallinn University of Technology and Rezekne University of Applied Sciences can be considered extremely trending and contemporary. Cybersecurity Management (BA School of Business and Administration, Latvia). The cybersecurity Master of Business Administration program is designed to provide in-depth and up-to-date information in the field. With increasing globalization and the growing global security risks, the need for effective management of data and demand for information security as well as intelligence has increased. The program addresses these aspects by specifically focusing on concepts, insights, and management strategies of cybersecurity operations. Governance of Digitalization (Abo Akademi University, Finland, QS World University Ranking - # 251). Digitalization is the word used to denote the fundamental change now undergoing in our society due to exanding use of digital technologies. This change is enabled by the transformation of data into digital format, but increasingly it is the organizational-level changes enabled by this transformation that has now become the focus of digitalization. Digitalization enables new ways to organize work and do business, which are the most important forthcoming changes. Digitalization challenges existing business models and radically affects some of the established organizations and industries. The core 57 objects of digitalization are organizations in a broad sense, including businesses, government, and other organizations. Public Sector Innovation and e-Governance (PIONEER) (KU Leuven, the University of Münster and the Tallinn University of Technology, QS World University Ranking - # 71). e-Governance and the digitalization of the public sector are most likely one of the most important reform trends for the future public sector. That is why the public sector of the future needs experts, who combine knowledge in public administration and public management, on the one hand, and information systems and e-Governance, on the other hand. The Erasmus Mundus Master of Science in Public Sector Innovation and e-Governance is a new and unique program delivering those experts. The benefit is created by paying attention to the practical challenges of professionals in policy, administrative, and consultative functions. To summarize the analysis of the seven IT master’s programs in foreign countries some conclusions can be made, as shown in Table 5. Table 5: Comparison of Belarussian and foreign IT master’s programs Criteria Belarussian IT master’s Foreign IT master’s New master’s programs programs program Duration 1–2 years 1.5–2 years 2 years Share of practice (%) ≈6 ≈20 33 Share of soft skills disciplines (%) ≈1.5 >30 51 Share of elective courses (%) <7 >50 >25 Share of independent work (%) ≈79 ≈80 80 Share of humanitarian disciplines (%) ≈7 0 0 Source: Official websites of universities. Note: 1. The share of soft skills disciplines is higher, as it is assumed that such skills will be acquired in several ways: 1. Teaching such soft skills subjects 2. In the course of collective works on practical tasks and projects, in the process of drawing up reports on the results of tasks for each discipline. The share of independent work of IT master’s programs, as a rule, is a little higher than 80 percent. This percentage is rather close to that of Belarussian IT master’s programs. The average share of independent work of master-level students among the Belarussian IT master’s programs is approximately 79 percent. The average share of independent work of the IT master’s programs at the BSU is 80 percent and at the BSUIR it is 81 percent. The duration of most of the foreign IT master’s programs is 1.5–2 years (120 ECTS). Belarussian IT specialists hold the view that the optimal duration of the master’s program is about nine months. However, it is important to note that there is often one semester of obligatory internship, which amounts to at least about 25–30 percent of the total academic hours in foreign master’s programs. The average share of practical classes among the analyzed programs is more than 20 percent. The Belarussian IT master’s programs have an average share of practice that totals 6 percent, although according to the Belarussian IT industry’s opinion the share of practical classes should not be less than 67 percent of the total workload. A noteworthy detail is that some foreign IT master’s programs allow master’s degree students to study at three different universities in three different countries for half a year and consequently the students will graduate with three national diplomas (The Erasmus Mundus Master of Science in Public Sector Innovation and e-Governance, Pervasive Computing and COMmunications for sustainable development). There is some evidence to suggest that such programs should be extended reasonably in comparison with the stationary master’s program in Belarus. 58 Overseas, there are many more specialties in IT Management, e-Governance, ICT Innovation, and Computer Systems and it goes without saying that such specialties have a much higher share of soft skills disciplines: from 16 percent to 40 percent of the total volume of academic hours. The average share of soft skills among the analyzed programs is 33 percent. Concurrently, all the courses (100 percent) of some foreign master’s programs can be electives (Distributed Software Systems, Technische Universität Darmstadt) and most of them have more than 50 percent of elective subjects for all courses. Figure 47: The comparison of curriculums of the new master’s program and international ones Source: Official websites of universities. Note: 1. New master’s program: Complex Integrated Systems Design (BSU, Belarus) 2. Governance of Digitalization (Abo Akademi University, Finland) 3. E-Governance Technologies and Services (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia) 4. Computer Systems Design (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia) 5. Computer Systems (Rezekne University of Applied Sciences, Latvia). It should be noted that the curriculums cannot be compared with absolute accuracy, as they presuppose the training of different specialists, and the content of some disciplines may differ due to the difference in titles and the different periods of education. Nevertheless, there is a definite need for further improvement of the proposed program. 59 Therefore, it is possible to single out the following directions to improve the future admissions in the projected master’s program: • Reducing the volume of theoretical research • Increasing the internship duration • Reducing the total number of disciplines to design a more specialized master’s program (according to international benchmarking, the number of subjects in the curriculum should be of a more specific range) • Including activities in the curriculum disciplines that are aimed at studying the basics of decision making and risk assessment, international entrepreneurship, and modern IT standards • Increasing the share of elective disciplines after possible changes in legislation or as a pilot project 60 4. Analysis of the IT skills needed for successful implementation and maintenance of the NTPS The National Paperless Trade System (NTPS) is a system that would unite all the participants of the process of foreign trade and let them avoid complicated multiagent procedures by using a single web portal. The feasibility study of the NTPS in Belarus was conducted in 2015 by the South Korean organization Korea Trade Network (KTNET). The Republic of Korea is the only country in the world that has already implemented the seamless paperless trade system and is using it for international trade, which corresponds to the Phase 5 of the e-Trade Development. Belarus, which is currently in Phase 2, is planning to take the Korean experience and model as an example and adapt it to local conditions. According to the interview with Infopark, KTNET’s expert partner for the NTPS feasibility study, there are several complicated features of the project, which may be indicated as follows: • The existing model of public administration requires appointing the main implementing agency. All state and non-state agents support the program, but there is no agency that is willing to take responsibility for the implementation. That is why, currently, the project is included in a State Program, but there is no responsible body and real implementation and financing mechanism. The private-public partnership model, set out for the project in the program, may be not effective in the Belarussian context. • Belarus already has existing complex e-systems: customs, an automated information system for interministerial communication, and others. With regard to the NPTS, we speak more of integration the existing components than of creating the system anew. • The National System will need to be integrated with the other NTPS, potentially created in Russia and Kazakhstan, to form the single International EurAsEC paperless trade system. In future, it should also be capable of seamless integration with other international systems, so knowledge of international standards by the developers is essential. • Problems with the resources: low level of English, limited resources in certain specialized fields, and problems with the broader view and interdisciplinary skills. All these issues require deep understanding of the functioning of ministries, various sectors of the economy, international standards, and legislation. Except for the system development and architecture, implementation of the NTPS requires the ability to analyze the current situation, plan the works, and manage the resources. According to the KTNET feasibility study, the project has staffing structure as shown in Figure 48. 61 Figure 48: General IT organization model Committee consisting of high ranking officials of organization (Steering Committee) • Matching ICT strategy and object with overall organization’s strategy and vision • Actively supporting management layer and Exerting leadership to overall organization. Strategy Layer • Approving project budget and final decision of project execution Layer for planning, promoting and managing project (Planning & Management) • Establishing vision, plan, direction of business, recommending to strategic layer and receiving Management Layer approval • Attracting support and sponsorship of high ranking of officials, collecting opinion of various groups of interested parties • Monitoring and managing project progress Design/Development/Operating Layer Layer for designing, developing, and operating actual service (Development & Operation) Planning/management Infrastructure management System • Planning/management: Execution unit for ICT planning and management ▪ Planning and strategy development/maintenance ▪ Database management • System development/maintenance: Execution unit for service design, establishment ▪ Process Analysis (BPR) ▪ Server management development and management ▪ Project management ▪ App. Design/ Develop ▪ Network management ▪ Change management ▪ Security policy and • Infrastructure management: Execution unit for maintaining/repairing ICT ▪ App. Maintenance/Repair infrastructure such as H/W, S/W, N/W, etc. ▪ Quality management ▪ User Management management ▪ Cooperating company ▪ Computer room management management ▪ Contents Management ▪ Disaster recovery Sources: KTNet feasibility study of National Paperless System for Belarus, December 2015; Civitta Interview with Infopark representatives. The level for which specialists can be trained within the new ICT capacity-building program is highlighted in blue. Apart from the level of personnel, the feasibility study has also determined potential implementing agencies and level of input and skills required. Table 6: Roles and responsibilities of the NTPS implementing organizations Organization Role and responsibility National • Pan-government paperless trade policy promotion Paperless Trade • Executive decision-making body for the strategic and tactical execution of the NPTS Single Window Project Higher • Coordination and cooperation with ministries beyond the limitation of horizontal Committee division structure in government organization Steering • Decision-making body for the implementation of the NPTS Project Committee • Decisions on scope change, resource request, service request, and service level compliance Consulting • Technical guidance of national standard framework Institute • Support for management of the project and evaluation of the delivery Executive Agency • Management and supervision of the NPTS Project o Directing overall NPTS Project and take responsibility for PM o Evaluating and accepting the delivery • Liaise with Steering Committee on main Issues related to project performance PM • Management of overall progress and delivery of NPTS Project • Responsibility for NPTS Project practical affairs Advisory Working • Joint business and technical working group to support implementation of NPTS Group o Trade process and technical expert of the public sector and the private sector • Consultation and advice on the improvement of trade process and related system • Support for materials relating to trade process, law and regulation, and so on Project Support • Management of NPTS Project standard and quality Group • Support for communication with executive agency • Support for training and technology transfer 62 Organization Role and responsibility Application • Analysis, design, and development of application program and system interface Development • Test and delivery of application program Group • Training and technology transfer of application program Infrastructure • Delivery of infrastructure equipment Group • Installation, test, training and technology transfer of commercial software, hardware, and network Source: KTNet feasibility study of National Paperless System for Belarus, December 2015. In Table 6, the type of project participants and resources that would be needed are in bold. The needed specialists will operate at different levels, but the requirements for all of them are similar, as for specialists, operating one of the first examples of the complex integrated system: • Good technical and architectural skills • Deep understanding of national and international standards; • Ability to analyze and understand the context of the project • As the project involves multiple agents, specialists should also have the understanding of the disciplines such as the trade, logistics, and economics • Ability to design the system and prepare the road maps for the implementation of separate parts • Ability to manage projects and people Quote from the interview with the Infopark representative: “The goal here would be to train people, who in future would be able to implement the new management model, different from the current one, who will have the broader vision and will be able to propose the real implementation mechanisms for the complex inter-agency country-level projects such as NTPS. Yes, we need an engineer, but the one who knows that it is not enough just to describe the system. This person should know, which factors should be taken into account, e.g., if the legislation will allow implementing the project, which is the current level of country development, which international experience in this field already exists and which international agents to cooperate with. It is not about the mass education; it is about the attempt to find such people and show them the direction. Currently, we have such visionaries only in Ministries, but they often do not have practical mechanisms to implement such projects and the ability to focus on them. The newly trained specialists would be able to do it, with their technical skills and the capability to look through the broader lens.” The current project on ICT industry development in Belarus could support the NTPS design, implementation, and sustainable operation as detailed in the following paragraphs. Master’s Program The new ICT capacity-building program will be able to fill the gap in skills of the existing workforce at the development and management levels. To do this, the following principles will be implemented: • Knowledge and experience. This involves preparing and properly training specialists and providing them strong knowledge and existing hands-on experience in the architecture of complex integrated systems. It also entails giving these specialists not only technical knowledge but also the tools for analyzing the current situation and creating new concepts and methodologies. • Soft skills and interdisciplinary knowledge. Include in the program the required interdisciplinary studies and soft skills such as project management (PMBOK), communication, people management, public administration and e-government, and others. The specialists will not only build the structure of the system but will also define roles and assign tasks to a team 63 member, monitor progress, and coordinate the work with strategic goals and other agencies involved. • Flexibility and cooperation with the client agencies. Admission of a certain level of flexibility in designing the program each year: the optional courses will be according to the needs of organizations sending their specialists to study, for example, banking systems, logistics, standards, and regulations in international trade (the basis of the system), and cloud technologies. BSU ICT Cluster The BSU ICT cluster could be the platform for project implementation. As the cluster was initially created for the project on fighting fur counterfeit within EurAsEC, one of the first examples of complex integrated systems in Belarus, it could be extended to be the technological platform for the NTPS as well by inviting the interested agencies and firms. It could be a place for the program students to practice and at the same time be a hub to train future employees of the NTPS. The BSU cluster could also serve for transfer of knowledge, standards, traditions, and competencies. It will allow not losing the knowledge gained from the NTPS implementation, but use it to educate the new generation of specialists and implement it in the new complex nation-level systems. 64 Conclusion The study shows that the HR problem in the IT industry lies not in the number of specialists but in their qualification. Universities and private educational institutions produce enough specialists to satisfy the needs of the Belarussian IT industry. Moreover, the number of graduates of educational institutions is 250–300 people higher than the number of positions offered by the Belarussian IT companies. Therefore, the gap is not a shortage of specialists calling themselves ‘IT specialists’. The gap is the lack of educated, experienced professionals with a full and deep understanding of programming and the problems that need to be solved in general. Therefore, there is a constant struggle for the best workforce. This issue is typical not only for Belarus but also for more developed markets, for example, the United States and the EU. What skills are missing? First, the basic technical skills, that is, the fundamentals, the possession of which gives a reason for calling a specialist an IT developer. Second, soft skills. These are the skills of teamwork, management, and communication, as well as the ability to understand and solve problems. The problem is not to find an employee who can code but to find an employee who can solve problems. Third, knowledge of English is important. Belarus is too a small market for the development of large companies. Great solutions can be created, but it is physically impossible to scale them inside the country. The option is to work in the global market. Why is it necessary to solve the problem? The outsourcing business model, which was adopted in Belarus as a base some time ago, has become obsolete. The model is based on selling the maximum possible number of hours of the teamwork for the maximum possible remuneration. That is why this model has a visible and tangible limit. On the one hand, this limit is determined by the number of IT professionals in the country, which is granted (everyone cannot be a programmer). It is determined by the number of the population in the country. On the other hand, measures of development of the IT industry have been adopted in almost every country in the world. This means that in the future Belarussian programmers will face competition from programmers in Vietnam, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and other countries. Also, other things being equal, companies will not be able to sell Belarussian teams, which are much more expensive than a team from Asia or Africa. This is already happening—even Belarussian outsourcing companies open development offices in countries with cheaper labor and launch programs for improving skills for local staff. There is also another way—a product model, in which ready-made solutions can be created and exported to the global market. Here, the potential for revenue per employee is ten times higher. But the risks are also significant. In addition, employees of a different, higher qualification are required. Consequently, if Belarus wants to develop a product IT model (such ideas were voiced at the highest levels of the country’s leadership), it is necessary to overcome the qualification gap in knowledge and skills. Why does the gap exist? The problem of the gap in knowledge and skills lies in the sphere of education. This is a multifaceted problem that affects not only higher education and IT education but also the education system of the country as a whole. To solve the main problem of the gap in the knowledge and skills of IT professionals, it is necessary to solve two groups of issues: 65 • Systemic issues of education, that is, issues that are specific to education in general • Content problems of IT education, that is, the inconsistency of the contents of educational programs with the needs of the IT sector The systemic problems of education include the following: • Low prestige of educational activity per se (not only in higher education) • Aging of the teaching staff • Lack of motivation for the teaching staff to change the current situation • The long cycle of training of specialists • The lawfulness and strict regulation of educational legislation The solution to most of the problems in this group lies in changing the system of motivating professors. This applies not only to university professors whose earnings from teaching activities are several dozen times less than the earnings of senior developers. The problem is much broader—it is impossible to prepare a quality specialist only in the university. The process of training a specialist must begin from the school level, if not earlier. This means that it is necessary to radically change the attitude toward pedagogical activity and make sure that the best graduates go into the education system. A positive, indirect effect of this will be the possibility of shortening the training period of a specialist who will receive knowledge in a manner that is convenient for perception throughout the entire educational cycle. A one-time and straightforward increase of salaries in the education sector will not solve the problem. Unfortunately, most of the current pedagogical staff will not be able to provide the necessary level of education. The reasons are the lack of motivation, which will be difficult to renew solely by financial instruments, and the fact that the pedagogical staff lack up-to-date knowledge and experience. One of the possible solutions is to reform and create a ‘new school’, with new professors. The second option (which is more realistic regarding IT education) is attracting specialists from the real sector to education. Another group of systemic problems in education is legislation that has remained the same since the time of the planned economy. First, the legislation regulates too many issues (content of courses, compulsory subjects for any specialty, the share of practical classes, and so on, which should be regulated by the level and content of demand for specialists). Second, the legislation strictly requires planning the content of the educational course (up to the programs of specific subjects) for several years ahead. It leads to the obsolescence of educational programs at the design stage. The content problems of IT education include the following: • Obsolete educational programs for technical skills • Absence of cross-disciplines and soft skills in the programs • The isolation of education from practice, aggravated by mutual distrust of business and education • Insufficient level of ‘non-core’ IT education The existing programs provide an idea of the fundamental principles of programming (and this still allows Belarussian IT specialists to be among the best in the world). But new technologies (big data, AI, blockchain, and so on) are taught at an inadequate level. Moreover, their introduction into the curriculum happens not at the stage of the formation and development of technology but at the stage when technologies have become mainstream. The second problem is, paradoxically, the excessive ‘technicality’ of education. It means that the 66 education prepares, as a rule, the developers-performers, who can work according to the prepared technical task. However, most of them do not understand the reasons why this technical assignment was written and what problems the solution will solve. In other words, the developers do not understand the users of the final product and, moreover, do not know how to communicate with them. The gap in soft skills prevents the development of the product model, as a product cannot be developed without a deep understanding of the problems that it solves and customers who have these problems. The third content problem of IT education is isolation from practice. Most of the time the process of teaching is devoted to theoretical methods, and less time is spent on practice. Moreover, the share of practical classes is limited by legislation. It is intended to solve this problem by practicing in IT companies. But this internship is somewhat formal and does not provide proper results. This issue is partially solved by practice-oriented additional education. In addition, 70 percent of the IT companies invest in the development of in-house learning systems. And, finally, the fourth content problem of IT education lies in its inadequate system. This is especially relevant in school IT education, where the issue is that children study things that every modern child learns just in the process of growing up and by overall development (for example, browsing the Internet, e-mail, text editors, and so on). This leads to the students misunderstanding the essence of information technologies and the scale of the problems that they can solve. The paradox is that the same disciplines are taught in courses related to the qualification improvement of managers. This leads to the almost complete lack of understanding of the value of informational technologies in non-IT sectors. In other words, there is no internal demand for IT products. What should be done? There are several initiatives that state bodies can take to remedy the situation: (1) Qualitative change of teaching staff (a) Increase the professors’ level of remuneration to the level of those specialties that they teach. In a secondary school - to the average market level from the start of a career (40 percent lower now). (b) Attracting the best practitioners in higher education by, for example, granting them preferences or (in the case of IT) by introducing a kind of ‘social burden’ for HTP residents. (2) Encourage private initiatives in education (a) Granting privileges and preferences to companies that work in the field of additional education in general and IT education in particular (b) Encouraging initiatives on cooperation between the private sector and educational institutions (c) Involving companies in the development of curricula (3) Decrease regulation in the sphere of education (a) Mitigation of the tough and long-term planning of the contents of training courses (b) Mitigation of the requirements for the content of training programs. Setting ‘framework’, rather than strict requirements (4) Development of STEM and IT education from the primary school level (a) Development and adoption of IT in the methodology of teaching general subjects. 67 (b) Development and introduction of IT disciplines into the school curriculum. Moreover, these disciplines should be aimed at developing not just basic skills (such as an MS office package), which any modern child likely acquires through general exposure growing up, but more applied disciplines (for example, programming principles and problem solving). (c) Development and introduction of subjects aimed at developing logical thinking and approaches to solving problems (for example, logic) in the school curriculum. As can be seen, most of the decisions lie not so much in the field of IT education as in the field of education in general. That is why the decision to implement initiatives should be, to a large extent, political, such as the Decree ‘On the development of the digital economy’. The consequences of such decisions will be more long term but more significant for the country. The final result will be a qualitative increase in the level of specialists in Belarus and the country's shift to the world leaders. Can the projected BSU master's training solve the problems in the qualification gap? The program is designed to prepare system architects, that is, specialists, aimed at solving significant problems that require the involvement of many parties with different interests and goals. For example, the introduction of the NPTS will require the participation of about 10 government bodies and authorities. This means that specialists must know and understand the needs of the real sector. Therefore, it can be stated, with a high degree of confidence, that a new master's program can and must fill gaps in the development of soft skills. The new master's program will also have a high practical focus, which will be achieved through closer cooperation with the real IT sector. Professors will have a real business experience in the IT field. In addition, specialists from foreign universities will be invited. An additional factor for the success of the program will be the international cooperation (including the possibility of internships abroad) to gain knowledge and skills (including communication and management skills) that are not represented in the Belarussian master's programs and are in demand in the IT industry. Thus, the master's program does not solve all the problems of the gap in knowledge and skills. But it can become a pilot project, where some initiatives will be tested. They include training the elite of the IT industry to implement large-scale product solutions, developing soft skills, and consolidation and cooperation of the best professors of universities and indifferent representatives of private companies. On the basis of the successes and failures of the new program, it will be possible to build a system of modern IT education, scale this experience, and use it for other HEIs and specialties. 68 Annex 1. Objective and scope of the study Objective The main objective of this analysis is to find what prevents the Belarussian IT sector from rapidly shifting from the less-efficient outsourcing model to the product model and which skills do local workforce lack to implement such qualitative changes. The study assesses the gap that exists between the demand and supply of qualified HR in the IT and high-technology sector in Belarus. Precise definition and the ability to fill this gap would let the sector avoid resources’ bottlenecks and contribute to the further sustainable growth of the Belarussian ICT industry. The survey collected and analyzed data from the companies of real IT sector to define their evaluation of availability and quality of the existing HR on the market and level of satisfaction with the level of Belarussian universities’ graduates. It also reviewed the Belarussian system of education and the existing master-level IT programs. Scope of the study The study relies on secondary data, statistical data, and primary data collected through an Internet- based survey and in-depth interviews implemented within the following scope: • Internet-based survey of 230 directors, top managers and HR specialists of IT and high- technology sector companies in Belarus • In-depth interviews with 12 representatives of higher education, main training centers, industry experts, and other stakeholders from the IT community in Belarus (beCloud, Center of banking technologies, My Freedom, EnCata, Asterman, EPAM (2 interviews), tut.by, Vizor Interactive, Jenty Spedition, Infopark, BSU, and Red Rocks Apps) • Internet-based survey of 50 academics of major Belarussian HEIs • Internet-based survey of 244 students and graduates of the Belarussian master- and bachelor- level IT programs. On the demand side, the study is based on the information collected through interviews that assess employers’ requirements for certain skill sets and general satisfaction level of graduates’ theoretical knowledge and practical skills, their soft skills and fluency in English, and additional generic capabilities. On the supply side, the survey focuses on the main providers of IT education, their programs and quality of teaching staff, the estimation of the potential quantity of graduates, and the identification of key quality constraints. A survey of students and graduates to find out their satisfaction with the level of Belarussian education and intention to work in Belarussian ICT industry has also been included. Secondary data are sourced from the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus (Belstat), websites of Belarussian Universities, and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus. The report compares the demand and supply parameters and analyzes the implications on the sector for the next three to four years. Based on the assessment results, high-level recommendations will be given to address the system constraints and support the sector’s growth and competitiveness. 69 Annex 2. Survey questionnaires Questionnaire for quantitative survey of the IT companies As a contractor to the World Bank’s technical assistance on the project ‘ICT Industry Development in Belarus’, Civitta is implementing a research on IT skills gap in Belarus. We ask you to answer the questions below. The survey will take about 10–15 minutes of your time. CONFIDENTIALITY: Survey responses are strictly confidential and individual responses are not identified. BLOCK 1. GENERAL/COMPANY INFORMATION Name of the company _____________________________________________________________ Name of the respondent ___________________________________________________________ Position of the respondent__________________________________________________________ Location of the company ___________________________________________________________ Phone number (only for purposes of specifying the answers) ______________________________ 1. Please, choose the type of your company.  Product  Outsourcing  Mostly outsourcing  Mostly product 2. Please, state the percentage of outsourcing/own product development, % (0–100) *3. Most of the clients of your company are from  Belarus  Russia  Non-CIS countries  Other (please specify) *4. Please, state the total number of employees in your company.  1–20  21–50  51–100  101–1,000  1,001+ *5. What is the percentage share of technical specialists (developers) are among them (0–100)? BLOCK 2. HUMAN RESOURCES *6. What do you think is the most important problem in the IT industry in Belarus?  Lack of specialists  Insufficient qualification of specialists  Migration of specialists to other countries  Low salaries of specialists 70  Other (please specify) *7. In your opinion, what kind of specialists will be the most in high demand in the IT industry in the next 35 years? Please select up to 3 most requested items.  Technical specialists (developers)  Business analysts  Project managers, product managers  Architects, designers of complex systems  Top managers  R&D specialists  Sales/Marketing Managers  Testers (QA)  Other (please specify) *8. In your opinion, how much will your company's staff number change in the long term (in the next 3 years)?  Company staff will decrease  The staff of the company will not change radically  The staff of the company will grow by 20–50 people  The company's staff will grow by 50–100 people  The company's staff will grow by more than 100 people *9. What do you think will happen to the labor market in the IT industry in the next 3 years?  The shortage of personnel will be reduced  The shortage of personnel will not change  The shortage of personnel will increase *10. Which specialists are in highest demand for your company? Please, select no more than 3 most demanded positions.  Technical specialists (developers)  Business analysts  Project managers, product managers  Architects, designers of complex systems  Top managers  R&D specialists  Sales/Marketing Managers  Testers (QA)  Other (please specify) 11. Which kind of specialists is most difficult to find? Why? Category 1 __________ Category 2 __________ Category 3 __________ *12. According to the 5-point scale, how do you assess the following graduates’ skills in terms of importance:  Technical knowledge  Practical skills 71  Education  Motivation  Soft skills (teamwork, communication)  Managerial skills/Project management  Entrepreneurship  English  Conformity to corporate culture  Attitude towards size of salary  Other ______________________ *13. How much do you spend on hiring and onboarding of one employee?  Less than US$100  US$101–US$250  US$251–US$500  US$501–US$1,000  Over US$1,001 BLOCK 3. QUALIFICATION OF SPECIALISTS *14. Please, the rate to what extent do the skills of your university graduates correspond to the needs of the IT sector? (1- do does not correspond at all, 5 - fully correspond) 15. In your opinion, what can improve the quality of training specialists in the IT industry? __________ *16. Please, rate how successful is the cooperation of your company with the universities preparing students in the IT sector? (1 - not successful at all, 5 - very successful) 17. In your opinion, what can be improved in terms of cooperation between universities and IT companies? __________ *18. In your opinion, what skills do the staff of IT companies in the country lack? Please, select no more than two options:  Technical knowledge  Practical skills  Soft skills (teamwork, communication)  Managerial skills/Project management  Entrepreneurship  English  Other ______________________ *19. Which types of technical skills are most requested by your company (for technical specialists)? Please, select three most crucial positions.  IT Architecture  Coding and Programming  Big Data Analysis  Project Management  Help Desk/Technical Support 72  Business Intelligence/Analysis 20. In your opinion, what are the other technical skills that IT specialists lack? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ BLOCK 4. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM *21. Do you have additional training courses, trainings, and educational programs of a different profile in your organization?  Yes  No *22. What is the topic of these courses?  Technical skills (programming)  Soft skills (team work, communication skills, etc.)  Management (Scrum, Agile, etc.)  Sales and marketing  English  Other (please specify) *23. What is the duration of these courses? (Less than a week, 2–4 weeks, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6–9 months, 9–18 months, more than 18 months)  Technical skills (programming)  Soft skills (team work, communication skills, etc.)  Management (Scrum, Agile, etc.)  Sales and marketing  English  Other *24. Who pays for these courses?  Company  Mostly company  Mostly employees  Employees *25. Do you send your employees to training courses, trainings, educational programs of a different profile that are carried out by the other organizations?  Yes  No *26. What is the subject of these courses?  Technical skills (programming)  Soft skills (team work, communication skills, etc.) 73  Management (Scrum, Agile, etc.)  Sales and marketing  English  Other (please specify) *27. What is the duration of these courses? (Less than a week, 2–4 weeks, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6–9 months, 9–18 months, more than 18 months)  Technical skills (programming)  Soft skills (team work, communication skills, etc.)  Management (Scrum, Agile, etc.)  Sales and marketing  English  Other *28. Who pays for these courses?  Company  Mostly company  Mostly employees  Employees *29. Do you think that there is a need for additional education for the specialists of IT companies after graduation?  Yes  No *30. There can be many options for additional training. Now there are mainly short-term courses on some specific disciplines in the market. For which categories of specialists will a long-term master's program be best suited?  Technical specialists (developers)  Business analysts  Project managers, product managers  R&D specialists  Architects, designers of complex systems  Top managers  Sales/Marketing Managers  Testers  Other (please specify) *31. What should be the duration of the master's program?  Up to 3 months  3–6 months  6–9 months  9–18 months  More than 18 months *32. What should a quality educational master's program include to be in demand and bring real benefits? 74 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ *33. Please mark three key features of a quality educational master’s program:  Presence of teachers from foreign universities.  Presence of teachers-practical workers from IT companies.  The possibility of having an internship in the IT sector.  Guarantee of employment after receiving a diploma.  State certificate.  Ability to choose courses voluntarily.  Teaching in English.  Internships abroad.  Other (please specify) *34. What disciplines should the master's program include? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ *35. In your opinion, what should be the share of the practical classes in the master's program? (0 – 100) 36. What else do you think should this educational program include in order being successful? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ 37. In your opinion, under what condition could your company pay for the additional education for yourself on a program that meets the quality criteria that you have indicated in the previous questions? __________ *38. In your opinion, how much may the training of one student for the EDUCATIONAL YEAR cost for such a program? Please provide the amount in US dollars. __________ BLOCK 5. OVERALL SITUATION IN IT INDUSTRY 39. Please, define how developed are laws relating to the use of ICTs (e.g., e-commerce, digital signatures, consumer protection)? (1 = not developed at all; 7 = extremely well developed) 40. In your opinion, what should be changed in the legislation that regulates the use of information and communication technologies? 75 __________ 41. In your opinion,to what extent is intellectual property protected in Belarus? (1 = not at all 7 = to a great extent) 42. Please, estimate, to what extent does the government have a clear implementation plan for utilizing ICTs to improve your country’s overall competitiveness? (1 = not at all—there is no plan; 7 = to a great extent—there is a clear plan) 43. How do you assess the quality of STEM education in Belarus? (1 = extremely poor- among the worst in the world; 7 = excellent—among the best in the world) 44. Please, estimate, to what extent do companies have the capacity to innovate in Belarus? (1 = not at all; 7 = to a great extent) 45. In your opinion, what can be done by the government to improve the innovation politics in Belarus? __________ 46. Please, estimate how easy is it for startups with innovative, but risky projects to get financing in Belarus? (1 -almost impossible, 7 - very easy) 47. What problems do you see for start-up entrepreneurs with innovative but risky projects in Belarus? __________ *48. Please, estimate, to what extent do businesses adopt new technology in Belarus? (1 = not at all; 7 = adopt extensively) *49. Please, estimate, to what extent do businesses use the Internet for selling their goods and services to consumers in Belarus? (1 = not at all; 7 = to a great extent) *50. Please, define how successful is the government in promoting the use of ICTs in Belarus? (1 = not successful at all; 7 = extremely successful) 51. What should the government change in promoting the use of ICTs in Belarus? __________ 52. Please, estimate, to what extent does the use of ICTs by the government improve the quality of government services to the population? (1 = not at all; 7 = to a great extent) 53. Please, estimate, to what extent do government purchasing decisions foster innovation? (1 = not at all; 7 = to a great extent) 54. In your opinion, what can be done in order to increase the number of product companies? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ 55. In your opinion, in which niches could the Belarussian IT companies be successful? ________ 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 76 *56. In your opinion, what prevents the Belarussian IT industry from developing the product model more actively?  Lack of experience  Lack of qualified technical specialists (developers)  Lack of qualified product / project managers/architects  Lack of qualified sales/marketing specialists  Imperfection of legislation  Limited access to financial resources  Weakly developed domestic market  Other (please specify) Thank you for taking the time and answering our questions! 77 Questionnaire for quantitative survey of the representatives of the educational sector As a contractor to the World Bank’s technical assistance on the project ‘ICT Industry Development in Belarus’, Civitta is implementing a research on IT skills gap in Belarus. We ask you to answer the questions below. The survey will take about 10–15 minutes of your time. CONFIDENTIALITY: Survey responses are strictly confidential, and individual responses are not identified. BLOCK 1: GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Please, indicate your place of work.  BSUIR  BSU  BNTU  BSEU  Academy of Public Administration under the Aegis of the President  Other (please indicate) 2. Please, indicate your age.  Under 27  28–35  36–45  46–55  56–65  Over 65 *3. Do you have working experience in real IT sector?  Yes, I currently work in IT sector parallel to teaching  Yes, but currently I don’t work in real IT sector  No  Other (please indicate) 4. Your name ___________ 5. Your phone number ___________ BLOCK 2: HUMAN RESOURCES *6. Please, state what are the most important constraints in recruiting in the IT sector?  Lack of specialists  Insufficient qualification of specialists  Migration to other countries  Low salaries 78  Other (please indicate) *7. In your opinion which specialists will be more in-demand for next 3–5 years?  Technical specialists  Business analysts  Project managers, product managers  Architects, complex system designers  Top managers  R&D specialists  Salespersons  QA specialists  Other (please indicate) ______________ *8. What do you think will happen to the labor market in the IT industry in the next three years?  The shortage of staff will be reduced  The shortage of staff will not change  The shortage of staff will increase *9. According to the 5-point scale, how important are the following skills for recruitment?  Technical knowledge  Education  Motivation  Soft skills (teamwork, communication)  Managerial skills/Project management  Entrepreneurship  English  Conformity to corporate culture  Attitude towards size of salary  Other ______________________ BLOCK 3. QUALIFICATION OF SPECIALISTS *10. How would you rate the level of education, provided by your university? (1- very bad, 5 – excellent) *11. In your opinion, which skills were insufficiently represented in the university program? Select no more than two answers.  Technical knowledge  Practical skills  Soft skills (teamwork, communication)  Managerial skills/Project management  Entrepreneurship  English  Other ______________________ 12. In your opinion, what technical skills are in the highest demand for the market (for technical specialists/developers)? Please select no more than three skills: 79  IT Architecture  Coding and Programming  Big Data Analysis  Project Management  Help Desk / Technical Support  Business Intelligence / Analysis  Other (specify) 13. In your opinion, what are the other technical skills that IT specialists lack? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ *14. Please, rate to what extent do the skills of your university graduates correspond to the needs of the IT sector? (1-do does not correspond at all, 5- completely correspond) 15. In your opinion, what can improve the quality of training specialists in the IT industry? __________ *16. Please, rate how successful is the cooperation of your university with the companies from the IT sector? (1 - not successful at all, 5 - very successful) 17. In your opinion, what can be improved regarding cooperation between universities and IT companies? __________ 18. Are there joint degrees/internships / joint laboratories with IT companies in your university?  Yes  No BLOCK 4. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM *19. Percentage of teachers who have working experience in real IT sector? (0–100) *20. Do you have additional training courses, trainings, and educational programs of a different profile in your educational establishment?  Yes  No *21. What is the topic of these courses?  Technical skills (programming)  Soft skills (team work, communication skills, etc.)  Management (Scrum, Agile, etc.)  Sales and marketing  English  Other (please specify) 80 *22. What is the duration of these courses? (Less than a week, 2-4 weeks, 1-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, 9-18 months, More than 18 months)  Technical skills (programming)  Soft skills (team work, communication skills, etc.)  Management (Scrum, Agile, etc.)  Sales and marketing  English  Other *23. Who pays for these courses?  Company  Mostly company  Mostly employees  Employees *24. Do you have master’s programs for IT specialists in your educational establishment?  Yes  No 25. What is the topic of these program(s)? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ *26. What is the duration of this program?  Under three months  3–6 months  6–9 months  9–18 months  Over 18 months *27. Who pays for the students of the program?  Company/the state  Mostly company/the state  Mostly students  Students *28. Do you think that there is a need for additional education for specialists in IT companies after graduation?  Yes  No 81 *29. There can be many options for additional training. Now, there are mainly short-term courses on some specific disciplines in the market. For which categories of specialists will a long-term master's program be best suited?  Technical specialists (developers)  Business analysts  Project managers, product managers  R&D specialists  Architects, designers of complex systems  Top managers  Sales/Marketing Managers  Testers  Other (please specify) *30. What should be the duration of the master's program?  Up to 3 months  3–6 months  6–9 months  9–18 months  More than 18 months *31. What should a quality educational master's program include to be in demand and bring real benefits? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ *32. Please mark three key features of a quality educational master’s program:  Presence of teachers from foreign universities.  Presence of teachers-practical workers from IT companies.  The possibility of having an internship in the IT sector.  Guarantee of employment after receiving a diploma.  State certificate.  Ability to choose courses voluntarily.  Teaching in English.  Internships abroad.  Other (please specify) *33. What disciplines should the master's program include? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ *34. In your opinion, what should be the share of the practical classes in the master's program? (0 – 100) 82 35. What else do you think should this educational program include in order being successful? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ 36. In your opinion, under what conditions could your company pay for the additional education for you on a program that meets the quality criteria that you have indicated in the previous questions? __________ *37. In your opinion, how much may the training of one student for the EDUCATIONAL YEAR cost for such a program? Please provide the amount in U.S. dollars. __________ BLOCK 5. OVERALL SITUATION IN IT INDUSTRY 38. In your opinion, what can be done by the government to improve the innovation politics in Belarus? __________ 39. What problems do you see for start-up entrepreneurs with innovative but risky projects in Belarus? __________ 40. What should the government change in promoting the use of ICTs in Belarus? __________ 41. In your opinion, what can be done in order to increase the number of product companies? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ 42. In your opinion, in which niches could the Belarussian IT companies be successful? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ *43. In your opinion, what prevents the Belarussian IT industry from developing the product model more actively?  Lack of experience  Lack of qualified technical specialists (developers)  Lack of qualified product/project managers/architects  Lack of qualified sales/marketing specialists 83  Imperfection of legislation  Limited access to financial resources  Weakly developed domestic market  Other (please specify) Thank you for taking the time and answering our questions! 84 Questionnaire for quantitative survey of IT students As a contractor to the World Bank’s technical assistance on the project ‘ICT Industry Development in Belarus’, Civitta is implementing a research on IT skills gap in Belarus. We ask you to answer the questions below. The survey will take about 10–15 minutes of your time. CONFIDENTIALITY: Survey responses are strictly confidential, and individual responses are not identified. BLOCK 1. GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Your university  BSUIR  BSU  BNTU  BSEU  APAPRB  Other (please specify) * 2. Which course are you finishing?  1 year  2 years  3 years  4 years  5 years  Master's program *3. Did you apply for a job (internship) in the IT sector?  Did not try.  I am learning and gaining experience.  I tried, but unsuccessfully  I tried. I was hired for the first time  I tried. I was hired not for the first time 4. What do you think, why you did not get a job (internship) from the first time? __________ 5. Your name __________ 6. Your phone number (only in case to clarify the information) __________ BLOCK 2. HUMAN RESOURCES *7. What do you think is the most important problem in the IT industry in Belarus?  Lack of specialists  Insufficient qualification of specialists  Migration of specialists to other countries 85  Low salaries of specialists  Other (please specify) *8. In your opinion, what specialists will be in high demand for the IT industry in the next 3–5 years? Please select up to 3 most requested items?  Technical specialists (developers)  Business analysts  Project managers, product managers  Architects, designers of complex systems  Top managers  R&D specialists  Sales/Marketing Managers  Testers  Other (please specify) *9. What do you think will happen to the labor market in the IT industry in the next three years?  The shortage of staff will be reduced  The shortage of staff will not change  The shortage of staff will increase *10. According to the 5-point scale, how do you assess the following graduates’ skills:  Technical knowledge  Practical skills  Education  Motivation  Soft skills (teamwork, communication)  Managerial skills/Project management  Entrepreneurship  English  Conformity to corporate culture  Attitude towards size of salary  Other ______________________ BLOCK 3. QUALIFICATION OF SPECIALISTS *11. How would you rate the knowledge you got in the university?  Excellent  Good  Not enough  Very bad  Other__________ *12. In your opinion, which skills were insufficiently represented in the university program? Select no more than two answers.  Technical knowledge  Practical skills  Soft skills (teamwork, communication)  Managerial skills/Project management 86  Entrepreneurship  English  Other ______________________ 13. In your opinion, what technical skills are in the highest demand for the market (for technical specialists/developers)? Please select no more than three skills:  IT Architecture  Coding and Programming  Big Data Analysis  Project Management  Help Desk/Technical Support  Business Intelligence/Analysis  Other (specify) 14. In your opinion, what are the other technical skills that IT specialists lack? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ *15. Please, rate to what extent do the skills of your university graduates correspond to the needs of the IT sector? (1-do does not correspond at all, 5- completely correspond) 16. In your opinion, what can improve the quality of training specialists in the IT industry? __________ *17. Please, rate how successful is the cooperation of your university with the companies from the IT sector? (1 - not successful at all, 5 - very successful) 18. In your opinion, what can be improved regarding cooperation between universities and IT companies? __________ BLOCK 4. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 19. Do you attend additional courses? Yes No 20. If yes, please, state which courses. Course Description *21. What is the duration of these courses?  Up to a week 87  2–4 weeks  1–3 months  3–6 months  6–9 months  9–18 months  More than 18 months 22. How much time do you spend per month to get additional knowledge that you do not receive in your university?  18–24 hours  12–18 hours  6–12 hours  1–6 hours  Other_________ 23. What do you learn on your own? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ *24. Do you think that there is a need for additional education for IT companies after graduation?  Yes  No *25. There can be many options for additional training. Now there are mainly short-term courses on some specific disciplines in the market. For which categories of specialists will a long-term master's program be best suited?  Technical specialists (developers)  Business analysts  Project managers, product managers  R&D specialists  Architects, designers of complex systems  Top managers  Sales/Marketing Managers  Testers  Other (please specify) *26. What should be the duration of the master's program?  Less than three months  3–6 months  6–9 months  9–18 months  More than 18 months *27. What should a quality educational master's program include to be in demand and to bring real benefits? 1. __________ 88 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ *28. Please mark three key features of a quality educational master’s program:  Presence of teachers from foreign universities.  Presence of teachers-practical workers from IT companies.  The possibility of having an internship in the IT sector.  Guarantee of employment after receiving a diploma.  State certificate.  Ability to choose courses voluntarily.  Teaching in English.  Internships abroad.  Other (please specify) *29. What disciplines should the master's program include? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ *30. In your opinion, what should be the share of the practical classes in the master's program? (0 – 100) 31. What else do you think should this educational program include in order to be successful? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ 32. In your opinion, under what condition could you to pay for the additional education for yourself on a program that meets the quality criteria that you have indicated in the previous questions? __________ *33. In your opinion, how much may the training of one student for the EDUCATIONAL YEAR cost for such a program? Please provide the amount in U.S. dollars. __________ BLOCK 5. PLANS *34. What are your plans for the future?  Work in a private IT company on a permanent basis  Work as a freelancer  Work in a governmental organization  Start your own business in the IT sphere 89  Start your own business not in the IT sphere  Other (please specify) *35. In what type of company would you like to work in?  Product  Outsourcing  Does not matter  Other (please specify) 36. In your opinion, what can attract IT professionals to the public sector? __________ BLOCK 6. OVERALL SITUATION IN IT INDUSTRY 37. In your opinion, what can be done to improve the innovation politics in Belarus? __________ 38. What problems do you see for start-up entrepreneurs with innovative but risky projects in Belarus? __________ 39. What should the government change in promoting the use of ICTs in Belarus? __________ 40. In your opinion, what should be undertaken by the government in order to increase the number of product IT companies? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ 41. In your opinion, in which niches could the Belarussian IT companies be successful? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ *42. In your opinion, what prevents the Belarussian IT industry from developing the product model more actively?  Lack of experience  Lack of qualified technical specialists (developers)  Lack of qualified product/project managers/architects  Lack of qualified sales/marketing specialists  Imperfection of legislation  Limited access to financial resources  Weakly developed domestic market  Other (please specify) 90 Thank you for taking the time and answering our questions! 91