The shortage is in managerial perspective
The needs of clients of the IT industry probably remain pretty constant: collect, enter, analyze, report. However, demand for IT services is largely driven like a treadmill of resource diversion toward ever increasing IT potential to make those basics look snazzy. Perhaps it is just a coincidence that metrics for getting actual work done are rarely presented. The industry feeds itself by delivering new demands as much as- or dare we consider- more often than it delivers (let alone supports) end-user productivity. The IT ecosystem drives self-supporting purchasing of upgrades to hardware, software, security and employee skills- often infuriatingly divorced from the ability of people to actually get meaningful use from their systems.
The real big bang in IT has been in management, which does remain well-paid overall even without demonstrable training or certifications. Improving computing resources and implementations- while often miraculous- are taken to be driven by Moore's law, and completely taken for granted as low-skilled platform requirements- met solely through training. The singular constant of change- in coding, protocols, technology- allows management to claim required skills are reflected entirely by (certified, current) training, which is perpetually, and conveniently, falling out of date. Hence, relatively low salaries and completely inappropriate dependence on certifications are seen as appropriate for obtaining the basic 'monkey-motions' required by more important BIG PLANS.
Conveniently, the inflated 'need' for certified trainings have been satisfied by divisions of the same industry that demands them. Staff development, versatility, insight and so on all seem to be viewed as impedimentary wastes of the energy needed to service the constant churn of new initiatives. What incentive could there be NOT to continually re-select freshly trained, newly certified and up-to-date new applicants at entry level salaries?
A supposedly small slice of my duties is to help a large group deal with the endless march of interrupting IT 'improvements'- that keep systems updating and re-booting all week every week. Although we are persistently blessed with Orwellian memos and indecipherable messages about making work safer and more productive, there is a real feeling that IT has no clue or concern for end-user productivity. The 'lack of skills' end-users perceive in both IT management and support focuses on that insensitivity to, or perhaps outright disregard for why people are expected to USE their computers.
