Page 68 - SAMENA Trends - October 2021

ARTICLE SAMENA TRENDS

services, connect with loved ones and Telecom providers must respond to this With the arrival of 5G and the escalating
enable business continuity. need for infrastructure development and importance of IoT and cloud computing,
innovative IP capabilities that keep pace telecom companies throughout the MENA
This activity resulted in total global data with an accelerated digital economy – region face the compounding burden of
consumption increasing by 30% in 2020, initiatives that require a highly skilled, finding and training people who can keep
while Wi-Fi capacity was stressed by 80%. digital workforce. pace with these fast-moving technologies,
As a result, 50% of networking executives while also incentivizing their workforce to
expect to boost their wireless networking The World Economic Forum stay in the industry when their skills are
investment while 15% report they’ll invest desired elsewhere. According to McKinsey,
significantly more, according to a Deloitte estimates that 97 million 88% of digital talent who switch companies
survey. new jobs will be created decide to leave the subsector altogether.
As we enter the next normal, the need for due to technological Given the finite pool of workers and the
network capacity and viability shows no advances and closing the high cost of hiring, a holistic approach to
signs of letting up with remote working workforce design and reskilling is critical
or hybrid practices likely to remain and global skills gap could add to ensure the telecom industry in the MENA
appetite for enterprise software only $11.5 trillion to the global region remains future ready. And with over
increasing. In a McKinsey survey, 38% of GDP by 2028. half the population in the MENA region
industrial companies said that they aspire less than 25 years old, there is a huge
to generate 50% or more of revenues opportunity to offer digital skills training to
within the next three years from digital Accelerating Digital Transformation with bolster the future digital workforce.
technologies and services. Digital Skills
Even before the pandemic, many countries By focusing on early training and reskilling,
Enabling An Ecosystem of Innovation: The in the Middle East and North Africa providers can also experience expanded
Role of Telecom Providers (MENA) region had outlined ambitious benefits including boosts in productivity,
The pandemic has also accelerated plans to transform their economies into while preventing information silos and
business requirements for privacy and digital powerhouses. There has been a delivering a superior customer experience.
security, along with increased visibility huge appetite for technology and many
around the value of data and automation. governments are leading the way with A Model for Digital Reskilling Across the
With these factors at play, enterprises technology deployments and policy MENA region - Pluralsight and Verizon
are turning to cybersecurity, artificial developments that support technology. The production of digital products and
intelligence and machine learning, and For example, the UAE’s Vision 2021 and services requires skills in information and
robotic process automation tools among Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. communication technologies (ICTs) to
other advanced technologies, at a record code, develop applications and manage
pace. According to IDC, the worldwide AI Knowledge and skills are the cornerstones networks. If looking for a model for
market is estimated to grow 15.2% in 2021 of digital progress and unlocking the digital reskilling, telecom providers in the
to $341.8 billion. potential of the workforce is widely viewed MENA region could consider Verizon’s
as crucial to any country’s economic initiative with Pluralsight,* the technology
By offering significant performance im- development in today’s digital world. workforce development platform that
provements — such as faster speeds, enables employees to develop the skills of
increased data capacity, lower latency, Digital skills and labor are scarce around tomorrow.
greater device density, and precise location the world – software developers in every
sensing — 5G and Wi-Fi 6 will be crucial to country globally are in high demand. Verizon is one of the largest communication
enabling these advanced technologies. In Worldwide, there are just 26.9 million technology companies in the world, ranked
fact, four in five executives consider ad- software developers, a number that is 19 of the Fortune 500. The company’s
vanced wireless very or extremely import- expected to grow to 27.7 million in 2023 strategic priority over the next five
ant to their organization’s ability to imple- and reach 45 million by 2030. years is to build its 5G network. This
ment IoT, big data analytics, AI, and edge strategy – Verizon 2.0 – requires product
computing—and even more say the same While the digital talent gap affects all development at scale and a workforce with
for cloud computing, according to Deloitte. sectors, this is particularly pronounced the technical skills across every domain.
in the technology, media, and telecom
Connectivity, in turn, is expediating the (TMT) industries. Telecom operators, for With the pace of technological change
growth of these advanced technologies. example, need employees with a range of only accelerating, Verizon has realized
Gartner forecasts predict that by 2025, capabilities across product development that hiring alone would not solve its skills
over 75% of enterprise data will be created and analytics to enable their own digital shortage or position its workers to embrace
and processed outside the typical data transformations. future changes within the industry. With
center. this in mind, a key component of the

68 OCTOBER 2021