I don’t buy the so-called skills gap as the reason enterprises aren’t hiring IT workers. The skills are there, but enterprises are determined to squeeze more productivity out of current employees.
Currently in the job search, and having been in the search every couple of years, I have seen a couple of factors that create the “we need more IT prople” vs. “hey I’m IT hire me”.
First for many reasons the IT industry has developed a Mercenary mentality. Both employers and employees have little to no intrest in seeing each other’s long term success.
The second problem, employeers desiring skills so specific, thus requiring no training. I see the real skills of a quality IT worker being ignored, adaptability. Knowing a specific language, application, operation system may get one through today but adaptability will get the employerer through all the changes of the industry.