"Specialized career paths need to become as attractive as managerial careers"
Swiss companies are struggling to recruit as many IT professionals as they would like. Alain Gut, Chairman of ICT-Berufsbildung Schweiz, explains what can be done to address the shortage without relying solely on talent from abroad.
Demand for workers in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector remains high in Switzerland. In 2024, the sector employed 266,000 people, 3% more than in 2022 and 68% more than in 2010. To meet increasingly specialized needs, some companies turn to international recruitment. Others instead choose to develop IT skills on foreign sites in order to access larger talent pools. Alain Gut, Chairman of ICT-Berufsbildung Schweiz, believes the aim is to strike a balance while also developing significantly more talent domestically.
What can Swiss companies do to retain talent and compete with offers from abroad?
Gut: The challenge is to stand out through the overall quality of the work environment they offer. A company that competes on salary alone has virtually no chance, because there will always be a competitor willing to pay more for exceptional talent. Specialized career paths therefore need to become as attractive as managerial careers. Excellent engineers and specialists, for example, should not have to become managers simply to gain greater responsibility, recognition or pay. Companies need genuine technical career paths that provide autonomy, flexibility and the ability to influence technology decisions. They should also significantly strengthen internal mobility to ensure that employees have opportunities for professional development.
Is recruiting specialists from abroad a viable solution?
Alain Gut: Switzerland must continue to recruit international talent, but immigration cannot be the only answer to the skills shortage. The country must strengthen its own talent pool. This means attracting more young people to ICT apprenticeships, increasing the number of apprenticeship places, enabling career changers to enter these professions and creating attractive continuing education pathways for existing employees. The long-term goal must be a balanced approach: recruiting internationally when necessary but developing significantly more talent domestically.
What are the risks for companies that relocate part of their workforce to IT campuses abroad?
Gut: International IT centers can provide access to larger talent pools, additional capacity and significant cost advantages. However, a strategic risk can arise when companies relocate too much critical knowledge and capacity abroad. If key engineering expertise is located almost entirely outside Switzerland, companies can become dependent on external providers. Over time, this can also weaken the Swiss ICT ecosystem, as fewer specialists are trained and developed locally.
To what extent could AI compensate for the shortage of IT specialists?
Gut: Artificial intelligence could reduce the skills shortage for certain tasks, but it is also likely to increase demand for people with advanced technological, analytical and governance capabilities. This means rethinking, among other things, how young professionals can continue to acquire these skills in an environment where companies will increasingly automate tasks traditionally assigned to entry-level employees and junior roles. Rather than compete with AI, apprentices will need to learn to work with it. Foundational skills such as systems thinking, cybersecurity, data literacy, problem-solving and understanding the interaction between technology and business will become increasingly important in the future.
What role will education and training play in the future?
Gut: Today, the challenge is no longer simply to train more “IT people,” but to develop genuine specialists. This means ensuring both that initial vocational training gives apprentices a solid foundation and that professional education and continuing education evolve with the labor market, enabling employees to specialize throughout their careers. Continuing education should no longer be regarded as an occasional activity, but as an integral part of a company’s operating model. Companies should identify the skills they will actually need over the next three to five years and compare them with the skills they already have in-house, addressing any gaps where necessary. Employees in roles that are closely related to certain specialist functions can often be trained to take on those roles. This is much faster than recruiting professionals with equivalent skills externally.
