Top 5 IT skills for contractors in 2022

As the technology industry continues to evolve and grow almost every day, constantly discovering and developing new innovations with almost no signs of slowing down, the demand for new and improved IT skills continues to increase rapidly. Knowing which IT skills are on the rise and becoming popular amongst businesses is useful for any IT contractor looking to take on their next challenge or enhance their opportunity to earn. Therefore below, Brittany Eldridge at Technojobs takes a look at the top 5 IT contractor skills set to be in strong demand for 2022.

1 – UX / UI Design

User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are two separate IT elements that work together to help the experience of web users. UI handles interactions between users and computer systems, software, and applications whereas UX focuses on the user’s overall experience with the brand, product, or service.  Both work together cohesively to provide the consumer with the ultimate seamless journey from start to finish when browsing.

Being able to provide a more engaging experience for consumers when purchasing a product or using a service, is the ultimate goal for the vast majority of companies in this day and age to ensure high levels of engagement and conversion. The importance of having a strong UX/UI design team is growing and hence the demand for contractors is growing – either for specific projects or failure to tie down permanent UX/UI staff.  

2 – Cloud Computing 

Cloud computing is the process of storing and accessing data and programs over the internet as opposed to using your computer’s hard drive. Adoption of cloud software usage, unsurprisingly, has increased and become in significant demand over recent years.

From March 2018 to March 2021, the share of cloud computing jobs increased by 42%, and within the same timeframe, job searches for cloud computing grew by nearly 50% too. These figures indicate that cloud computing skills have found an important place within the IT industry and will therefore be important to gain knowledge of in 2022.  Gaining knowledge in cloud computing is the useful for contractors wanting to compete for contracts that there is a big demand for. The key experience required in contracts is AWS and Azure.

3 – Cyber Security

Due to Covid-19, almost all elements of everyday life moved to online platforms. Whether it was brick-and-mortar stores moving online so their customers can continue to purchase products or work meetings continuing virtually with fun backgrounds and embracing a working from home culture. This forced movement of living online introduced a new vulnerable area for companies and consumers regarding their private information and data, ultimately opening a whole new field of opportunity for cyber threats. As this vulnerability developed, cyber attacks have continued to rise to new levels over the last few years.

It is without a doubt that cyber security is a massive priority for many businesses, with some already having experienced issues and paid million-pound fines due to data breaches across the globe. For this reason, companies are constantly investing in their cyber security and ensuring they have the very best within their IT departments to ensure they do not become yet another victim to cyber-crimes. As companies want to protect their infrastructures against data hacks, breaches, and viruses, the demand for IT contractors with cyber security skills will continue to rise in 2022 and play an important role in data protection.  

The skills gap is clear in the market for cyber security knowledge – the government having published many reports to support this. Contractors looking for skills that will nearly ‘guarantee’ work and ensure long term demand will want to look at cyber security.

4 – Data

Data is the buzzword for 2022. The demand for data roles has more than doubled in the last few years – this includes Data Architects, Data Scientists, Data Engineers, Data Analysts and Data Analytics. Data Engineers specifically are in massive demand – perm and contractors, Data Engineers are responsible for building and maintaining data platforms that are then integrated into a company’s system allowing easy access and flow of information. It is important for data engineers to be fluent in programming languages including Python and SQL, as well as having a good understanding of algorithms and basic machine learning.  Data Engineers now have an average daily rate of around £550 whilst for Data Scientists the average daily rate is nearly £600.

5 – Blockchain

Blockchain has been around now for a good number of years – but surely it will start to become more mainstream soon? There are many applications that use Blockchain technology and are in development especially in financial services – way beyond the common association with Cryptocurrency. There are also a number of start ups with deep pockets from VC and investor funding.  In fact to reinforce this Blockchain related contracts now have an average daily rate of nearly £650 and the number of Blockchain contracts have nearly doubled year on year.

Unsurprisingly, IT skills such as these will continue to be in high demand throughout the next several years as technology continues to rapidly evolve. Therefore, learning or simply developing new IT skills for 2022 could lead to higher contract rates and more opportunities.

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