The state and the private sector are joining forces to offer a programme that aims to attract and retrain people to join the IT sector in a bid to address the gap in the labour market.

The Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance, the Office of the Commissioner of Communications and the Cyprus Information Technology Enterprises Association (CITEA) presented on Friday the "ICT Re-Up Skilling" programme, which aspires to retrain unemployed people or employees with degrees in science and economics, so that they can join the field of IT and specifically data analytics, for which there is a great demand.

In his address, the Minister of Labour, Yiannis Panayiotou, stated that in the modern world we must constantly strengthen and increase the resources we have acquired, especially in the field of Information and Communications Technology.

Referring to unemployment in Cyprus, the Minister of Labour said that in 2023 it was just over 6%. "Our economy is growing, it grew more than our capacity to support it demographically", he underlined, while stressing the need for workers from other EU member states and from third countries to effectively secure staff for the economy of Cyprus. Furthermore, he expressed the opinion that through good cooperation between the State and employers' organisations, unemployment can be reduced in the next period, adding that the programme presented today is one of the key tools to achieve this target.

On his part, the new Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, Nicodemos Damianou, pointed out in his address that "digital skills are now a prerequisite for quality jobs but also for a professional career with attractive salaries". In addition, he said that the "ICT Re-UP Skilling" programme is the beginning for the development of a wider series of educational programmes that will follow in other subjects with the aim of upskilling and reskilling.

"This initiative is proof of the coherent approach and the utilization of synergies within the Government, but also of the constructive cooperation that can be achieved between the private and public sectors with the aim of accelerating the digital transformation of our country", he underlined.

In his own address, the Commissioner of Communications, George Michaelides, underlined the importance of having the necessary human resources in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and in particular in the field of cyber security, a field for which, as he said, the necessary skills unfortunately do not exist. This is an issue that is not limited only to Cyprus, he added.

He noted that in the EU it is estimated that there will be around 350,000 positions that will remain vacant in the field of cyber security, while also indicating the problem of an organisation retaining this specialised staff, due to the high demand that exists.

Michaelides referred to the Digital Security Authority, which began in 2018 and currently employs around 40 people with a purely technical background who work in the field of cyber security. "From 2018 to 2024, 32 people have left" the office, he said.

On his part, Demetris Nisiotis, President of CITEA, stated that "IT companies are currently facing a very serious problem when it comes to employing staff", adding that there are very large needs, which cannot be met by the existing human resources nor by the new entries to the labour market.

As he said, there are fewer IT professionals in Cyprus than the EU average, since according to the 2023 Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) the percentage of IT professionals in Cyprus in 2022 was 3.9% compared to 4.5% which was the EU average, while the proportion of students in IT in 2022 was 2.7% compared to the EU average of 3.9%.

"These figures show that a change of pace is needed to supply the economy and society with an adequate number of IT specialists. It is clear that we need to change the pace, not just improve, and to do that we need to take drastic measures," he said, noting, however, that these measures are long-term, will give results in the coming years and therefore we need short-term solutions that will meet current needs.

On his part, Neofytos Papadopoulos, Permanent Secretary of the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, referred to the stages of the programme. In particular, as he said, an information day will be held on February 2, while applications must be submitted by February 16. This will be followed by the evaluation of the applications and the interviews which will be completed by March 8 with the aim of selecting up to 15 people.

Papadopoulos clarified that priority will be given to the unemployed. As he said, the programme will start on March 18, for training in the field of data analytics and Power BI and will last for 10 weeks and then the exams and certifications will take place.