Software engineers can drive economic growth – Thorpe
SEAN THORPE, president of the Jamaica Computer Society, has said software engineering is a smart career choice.
Thorpe, who is also an associate professor and head of School of Computing and Information Technology at the University of Technology, told The Gleaner that it’s one of the most in-demand skills in the world and will be the case for decades to come.
He said, however, that developing countries like Jamaica and others have had a mass migration of graduates to countries like United States of America and most of Western Europe, where salaries are more attractive. As such, the professor suggested that the Government, like the private sector, should see the need for software engineers, especially with the Government’s mandate to drive economic growth.
“With the shared view that over 1,000 software engineers are needed to serve the local business process outsourcing (BPO) industry annually, a deliberate strategy to produce and retain such graduates will be critical,”Thorpe said.
INCENTIVES
“However, if we are to incentivise our talent pool of software engineers to not migrate and stay in Jamaica, it must mean that software engineers must be allowed to make a good living here in Jamaica. By good living, the measure has to be the ability to pay bills, afford options to own homes and cars, (and) gain guarantees of perennial employment,” he said.
He also said there could be the introduction of tax incentives in the form of tax credits to academic institutions to train more graduates within this profession, and allow for scarcity allowances to academia in software engineering.
“The ‘Windrush’ generation of software engineers in the diaspora markets are also looking to add a lot of value to our local talent and they, too, can play a significant role as a part of the ecosystem of teachers and mentors that is spoken of here,”Thorpe said.
“One should not forget that academia software engineers, like industry-based software engineers, make up the numbers that contribute to the migration one speaks of from our shores. The argument around incentives has to be deliberate between government, academia and the private sector. A clear return-on-investment strategy has to be examined as a part of the efforts to retain as well as build the pipeline and reservoir of skills in software engineering if the industry, locally, is to survive.”
He therefore suggested that as many companies seek to automate their businesses as a part of the 21st-century workplace, this can only be realised by making the deliberate investment to build this talent pool.