June’s live Cloud Wars Expo event featured dozens of industry leaders allowing the Acceleration Economy team access to the inner workings of the greatest growth market the world has ever known. If you missed the Expo, or just want to catch up on sessions you were not able to attend, then you’re in luck. We recorded more than 40 hours of education sessions from the event, which are available for free to Acceleration Economy subscribers. We’re also previewing the content in this series of video Moments, which feature highlights from each session.
In this Cloud Wars Expo Moment, excerpted from a main stage fireside chat session, IBM SVP Howard Boville discusses the widening skills gap in the tech industry and how his company aims to fix it.
Highlights
00:16 — Cloud Wars Founder Bob Evans raises the issue of tech’s current skills gap and the plans that IBM has to win the “war for talent.”
00:40 — Boville describes the massive skills shortage impacting the tech industry. On the security front alone, Boville reports 2.6 million open positions.
01:10 — IBM has opened 50% of its technical roles for candidates without a college degree, in addition to providing vocational and skills-based training.
01:28 — Boville explains why the educational system doesn’t serve the general population well. By teaching students not to fail, the necessary task of learning from failure at work tends to feel unnatural.
01:54 — There’s a huge amount of untapped resources. Boville explains why he opts not to use the word “talent.”
Want to see the rest of this Cloud Wars Expo fireside chat with IBM’s Howard Boville? You can access the full discussion, along with more than 40 hours of cloud education content featuring 100-plus speakers at Cloud Wars Expo On-Demand. All content is free to Acceleration Economy subscribers with an on-demand pass.