Head of Social Impact at cryptocurrency firm Ripple – Ken Weber assessed the blockchain skill gap, as he urges tertiary institutions globally to expand their education curriculum to offer blockchain and digital asset courses; to fill in numerous roles in the industry.
Weber discussed the increasing demand for blockchain professionals globally in contrast to a very low supply of manpower and education resources. Statistics show that the demand for blockchain skills in organizations has increased by over 517% from the past year; and Weber says “demand is far outweighing supply”.
A large part of the issue is that companies need two types of blockchain professionals. Firstly, they need engineers who posses deep understanding of the technologies and can implement changes immediately. Secondly, they need to fill non-technical roles with senior employees who can make decisions involving the application of blockchain to business objectives. To do this, however, the employees need a working knowledge of the technology. The industry has a well-documented, yet growing skills gap that must be fixed.
According to Weber, at least 40% of world’s top 50 universities offer one blockcahin or cryptocurrency course, which are linked to different disciplines such as law, business administration, mathematics and more. Weber advocates that there should be independentl courses focused on the actual roles in the industry.
Speaking further, he opines that companies in the industry should form alliances with academic institutions to aid partnership through various programs for the industry and students growth.
See our article on Blockchain Jobs and Salaries here.
What are your thoughts on this? Will crypto and blockchain courses become regular parts of school curriculum?
