Some of us have been blessed to live in a country as digital, modern and advanced as Estonia. From e-voting to online public services, Estonia has been looked up to for years in this field, as other countries are actively trying to digitize their government nowadays as well.
But this hasn’t happened overnight. For example, in 2007, only 52% of households had an internet connection in Estonia, whereas in 2021, almost 92% homes had a stable connection. Also, our government has kept investing in the future. The annual state budget of 2021 had four different priorities and one of them focused on continuing investments for the future, especially in the digital area.
Source: https://taltech.ee/en/news/small-nations-ict-sector-intends-grow-tenfold-next-ten-years
This change has had an effect in the job market as well. Who would have thought at the start of the millennium that in twenty years we would be missing more that 40 000 workers just in the IT sector? Or that the employment growth will be enormously bigger than in other fields?
The development of IT has reflected in the workplace as well. About 20 years ago the field in Estonia was still developing, we lacked high-level experts, senior executives and quality programmers. We had way less opportunities for education and much of the labor was done by young enthusiasts, who had learned their skill themselves, instead of getting a degree in a university. Offices were older, with cheaper equipment and there weren’t any companies from Estonia making an impact on the world as we can see today.
Nowadays, being a qualified IT worker has a totally different sound to it. A high salary, benefits, freedom and a big knowledge base are automatically associated with you by others. Our workforce has diverse personnel, thanks to joining the European Union and multicultural hiring processes with remote work abilities. Many of the companies offer generous benefits packages, a very competent salary and growth opportunities while working. We have (but still not the needed amount) Estonian executives that have multiple degrees from here or abroad, skilled workers and highly-skilled programmers. Our offices are located in fancy buildings, filled with state of the art equipment and startups are actively being supported by foreign investments. Bolt and Transfer-Wise are some of the success stories that started with an idea and developed to worldwide phenomenons thanks to the support offered by our government and education, which has spread to major cities and has been integrated to primary- and high school education for younger pupils.
Surely, Estonia will still continue improvements in the area and hold the position of the most digitized government in the future. It’s just amazing to see what kind of change we have been through thanks to the efforts of everyone associated in the field. I hope that we can continue to help other states to reach such a level of competency as well.
Sources:
https://www.dw.com/en/e-government-estonia-leading-the-way/av-19119146
https://www.stat.ee/en/find-statistics/statistics-theme/technology-innovation-and-rd/information-and-communication
https://www.rahandusministeerium.ee/et/eesmargidtegevused/riigieelarve-ja-majandus/riigieelarve-ja-majandusulevaated
https://epl.delfi.ee/artikkel/94659915/liina-laas-it-spetsialistide-puudus-on-viinud-meie-majanduse-eduloo-noaterale
https://taltech.ee/en/news/small-nations-ict-sector-intends-grow-tenfold-next-ten-years
No comments:
Post a Comment