Why open source is critical to addressing Singapore's tech talent shortage

Singapore is in the midst of a tech skills challenge. As the country continues to attract investments from global technology giants, and Singapore-headquartered businesses like Grab and Sea thrive, there is a significant – and growing – need for more skilled tech workers. Various manpower surveys have found particularly strong demand for data scientists, engineers and developers, with bumper salaries on offer to the right candidates. However, there currently simply aren’t enough candidates available to fill the sheer volume of developer positions open at hand.

Singapore is by no means alone in facing a shortage of skilled developers. The talent gap is a global challenge, caused in no small part by soaring expectations for seamless digital experiences, which have arguably been expedited by the pandemic.

There is now greater awareness and appreciation of the transformative value that developers bring to organisations. Attracting and retaining the right talent – and critically, establishing an environment where they can thrive – is fast proving the difference between gaining an edge or losing out to competitors.

It’s critical that we continue to nurture talent and educate the next generation of developers. They will play a vital role in advancing Singapore as a financial services – and economic – powerhouse.

There is another, completely complementary, solution that can drive innovation for decades to come: unlocking the full power of open source.

A solution grounded in innovation and collaboration

Open source has become synonymous with innovation because it enables developers to work together more effectively, resulting in better, faster software solutions. Its culture of collaboration and shared values also means businesses quickly gain more ways to share code, best practices, and expertise.

The knock-on impact is that organisations embracing open source are more competitive and better equipped to attract and retain skilled tech talent than those that aren’t. And because open source is built on the philosophy that developers can contribute from anywhere, at any time, businesses gain access to developers and tech experts in every corner of the globe, making it significantly easier to find the right talent for the job.

Open source can play a critical role in addressing the growing developer shortage, not just in Singapore, but all around the world.

The benefits don’t end there either. Open source puts the developer experience front and centre, which means many of the world’s best developers actively want to work in it and will seek out roles that enable them to do so. This is also echoed by Singapore’s Government Technology Agency (GovTech) , which recommends organisations adopt open source to make hiring easier. Consequently, open source is gaining traction – and attracting top talent – at an increasingly rapid rate.

Singapore is perfectly poised to take advantage of the open source opportunity. It already has a strong open source foundation to build on, with the government taking a progressive approach to its adoption. For example, GovTech contributed the source codes of the protocol that powers the TraceTogether contact-tracing app, helping to stem the tide of Covid-19 throughout the nation.

It’s now up to enterprises to embed open source into the fabric of their working cultures. Doing so won’t just help solve the immediate skills crisis – it will pave the way for innovation for years to come.

The writer is regional director of field services APAC, GitHub