The debate whether company-provided trainings are actually beneficial or not will always go on. But new data from the Middle East shows how important trainings really are.

The data comes from the Computer Weekly Salary Survey 2017. It features responses from 650 IT professionals in the Middle East.

More than 63% of respondents say they don’t think they have received enough training from their employers. What’s more, 73% say the lack of trainings actually is hindering their career progression.

This creates further challenges to close the digital skills gap. ComputerWeekly even cautions that if companies don’t increase their investment in trainings, they could fall behind from other regions.

All of this further stops IT professionals from being motivated and seeking progression. Only 24.9% say they are actively seeking a new role in another company and 40% are open to the idea, but not looking actively. 37% say they would like to move to a bigger company in the next three to five years. 36% say they would like to stay at their current company, but work their way up the ranks.

But that’s not all. The survey also shows that Middle East organizations miss out the potential of recruiting more women. For example, in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, women make up only about 27% of the workforce, whereas the global average is just under 52%, according to the World Bank.

The situation is similar in IT where the Computer Weekly survey shows that 30% say there are no women in their IT departments. 29% say there are less than 10% women in their IT departments and only 9% say there are more than 40% women in their IT staff.

Coupled with the lack of trainings, the IT organizations Middle East are facing tough challenges not only to close the digital skills gap, but also remain competitive to other regions. Hopefully things will start to improve as time progresses.