AMMAN — The ICT Association of Jordan (int@j) will soon launch a study to pinpoint the ICT majors and skills most needed in the labour market.

To be conducted in cooperation with the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, the study will be completed in June, int@j CEO Abed Shamlawi told The Jordan Times over the phone on Monday.

“The study seeks to bridge the gap between academic skills of university students and skills that are needed in the labour market,” he said.

It also entails conducting a survey to determine the best paid jobs in the ICT sector and those that are most in demand, in addition to highlighting majors where there is saturation in the number of graduates, Shamlawi added.

“Currently, there is a gap between the skills students obtain at universities and what IT companies actually need,” he said, adding this leads to more unemployment among graduates of ICT-related majors.

Once the study is completed, several meetings will be held with representatives of universities to brief them on the results and most needed skills in the labour market, Shamlawi noted.

According to Ministry of Information and Communications Technology figures, some 5,000 Jordanians graduate with different ICT-related degrees annually.

Meanwhile, Shamlawi said int@j will launch a study today to look into the salaries of those working in the ICT sector with a view to setting a scale for each major and to prevent any brain drain in the future.

“Some experts in the ICT sector leave Jordan in pursuit of higher salaries abroad. We need to address this and the study will look into this issue and the scale of salaries for each major,” he said.

The results of the study will be referred to all local companies working in the ICT sector, according to Shamlawi.