Closing the ICT Skills Gap: Navigating the Divide Between IVET and Industry
Bridging the gap between vocational education and the ICT labour market was at the centre of the recent WIDCON webinar “Closing the ICT Skills Gap: Navigating the Divide Between IVET and Industry,” held on March 6th 2026.
The webinar featured as speaker Ph.D. Ana Guimarães Duarte, whose research examines students’ work-based learning experiences, their transition into the labour market, and the structural barriers that shape these trajectories, particularly for women, and within the Portuguese context. Her presentation highlighted how mismatches between training systems and industry expectations continue to shape the career trajectories of students in ICT programmes.
Structural barriers between education and employment
Drawing on her research, Duarte argued that many of the obstacles faced by ICT students are structural: these include poorly aligned internships, limited information about the types of work students perform during placements, and continuous pressures from the labour market.
“The objective of this webinar is mainly to present the female participation in ICT secondary vocational education in Portugal over the past decade, the students’ work-based learning experiences and their post-graduation pathways.”
Companies, she pointed out, often expect highly prepared candidates even at the entry level, creating an environment where students struggle to gain necessary early professional experience. As Duarte explained during the webinar:
“The job market is pressing more and more for highly qualified professionals, not in the junior level, but even in the senior level. We know the market needs them, but nobody wants to put their hands on the problem.”
This dynamic risks leaving vocational learners in a difficult position: expected to possess advanced practical skills while having limited opportunities to develop them during their studies. Especially for women, Duarte emphasised that these dynamics operate through a complex set of factors, including family expectations, school environments, and broader cultural narratives about technology and gender.
“The incentives and contexts mediated by gender intersectionality interact with the choices and learning experiences of female students in vocational computer science courses in Portugal.”
A persistent gender gap in ICT
Despite broader improvements in participation across STEM education, the ICT sector continues to show one of the largest gender gaps. Our speaker noted that aggregate statistics can sometimes hide this imbalance, since STEM categories often include disciplines where women are more strongly represented, such as health sciences.
However, when focusing specifically on ICT fields, the disparity becomes much more visible.
“When we look specifically at the ICT sector, there is still a huge gender gap.”
This imbalance not only affects educational pathways but also shapes labour market dynamics. According to Duarte, the ICT industry often faces a paradoxical situation: while companies report shortages of qualified professionals, many potential talents, particularly women, remain underrepresented or excluded from the field.
Rethinking industry engagement
To address these challenges, Duarte proposed a structured sponsorship approach involving ICT companies and vocational institutions. Instead of relying on short-term internships, she suggested a longer-term partnership model that would accompany students throughout their educational path.
Within this context, companies could sponsor classes, provide access to professional tools, offer mentoring opportunities, and introduce students to industry events or professional environments. Such collaboration would allow students to gain exposure to real technologies while schools focus on the necessary basic knowledge.
As our speaker noted:
“Companies could sponsor students or classrooms, providing training resources, mentoring experiences, and access to the tools used in the ICT industry.”
This model would also recognise the limitations schools face in keeping pace with rapidly evolving technological ecosystems. Rather than attempting to replicate professional environments, educational institutions could rely on these partnerships to provide students with direct exposure to industry practices.
The importance of better data and coordination
Another issue raised during the discussion concerned the lack of detailed data about student internships. While institutions often track the number of hours completed, information about the nature and relevance of the tasks performed is rarely collected systematically.
Duarte emphasised that this gap makes it difficult to assess whether work-based learning experiences truly contribute to the development of ICT skills.
“Schools report the number of hours of internships, but not the profile of the internship itself,” she explained. “That makes the experience almost invisible.”
Participants in the discussion also highlighted international experiences with dual education systems, such as those implemented in countries like Germany and Austria, where work-based learning is more tightly integrated into qualification frameworks.
Towards stronger collaboration in ICT education
The webinar concluded with a broader reflection on the need for closer and more structured cooperation between education systems, policymakers, and industry stakeholders. One potential solution discussed was the creation of a matchmaking platform at the European level to connect companies and vocational institutions interested in collaborative programmes.
For Duarte, the key priority is developing initiatives that are realistic and scalable within existing institutional constraints.
“I could give lots of wonderful ideas,” she said, “but they would be far from reality. What we need are feasible initiatives that schools and industry can actually implement.”
Such initiatives, if put into action, could help reduce the gap between ICT education and labour market expectations, supporting a more inclusive and effective digital skills ecosystem in Europe.
