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H U M A N C A P I T A L D E V E L O P M E N T F O R S M A L L A N D M E D I U M E N T E R P R I S E S

T H E C A S E O F R W A N D A ’ S I C T S E C T O R !

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Master of International Business Capstone Project

Submitted by Fumi Tataki

August 5, 2016

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© 2016 Fumi Tataki !

http://fletcher.tufts.edu!

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ABSTRACT'

Fumi Tataki: Human Capital Development for Small and Medium Enterprise Growth:

The Case of Rwanda’s ICT Sector (Under the direction of Professor Julie Schaffner and Professor Bernard Simonin)

The purpose of this research is to analyze human capital development for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Rwanda’s ICT sector by exploring the issue of the skills gap, a gap between the skills level employers expect of workers and the current skills level of workers. In order to increase productivity, SMEs need to reduce the skills gap by improving the skills of workers to meet the expected skills level. However, if the gap exists within firms, it may be the case that the gap is recognized only by employers and not by workers. This research aims to reveal whether a skills gap exists in the targeted SMEs of Rwanda’s ICT sector by asking employers and workers what skills they consider important for workers and whether they think skills gap exist in those skills. In order to understand whether skills gap exist in the sector, the author conducted a survey with employers and workers of SMEs in Kigali, Rwanda. The result of the survey supports the idea that both employers and workers consider soft skills as important as hard skills for workers. Furthermore, the result suggests that employers evaluate workers skills levels as less competent than workers do. The survey also supports the conclusion that workers tend to consider their relationships and communication with their employers as stronger than employers do.

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Table of Contents

I. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4

II. The Role of SMEs in Development .................................................................................... 7 Definition of SMEs ............................................................................................................................ 7 SMEs’ Contribution to Economic Development ............................................................................ 8 Need for Improving Business Environment for Growth ............................................................... 9 Human Capital as Important Element of SMEs Growth ............................................................ 10

III. Background of Rwanda and SMEs ............................................................................... 11 Background of Rwanda .................................................................................................................. 11 SMEs in Rwanda ............................................................................................................................. 14

IV. Rwanda’s ICT Sector ...................................................................................................... 15

V. Research Methods ............................................................................................................. 19

VI. Results ............................................................................................................................... 24

VII. Implications .................................................................................................................... 37

VIII. Research Limitations and Future Research .............................................................. 38

IX. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 39

Appendix________________________________________________________________ 42

Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 52 ! !

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I. Introduction

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in economic development,

accounting for 90% of businesses worldwide and more than 50% of global employment

today.1 While recognition of the role SMEs can play in global economic development has

increased in recent years, human capital development remains a key challenge constraining

their growth.2 Human capital, as the major input to production besides economic capital, is

crucial to a firm’s performance and survival.3 4 Human capital generates the knowledge and

ability necessary for workers to learn the new competencies needed for firms to grow,

allowing firms to secure a competitive advantage.5 Since SMEs tend to lack the economic

capital that larger firms have, it is particularly important for SMEs to increase their human

capital.

SME managers are thought, however, to face major obstacles to human capital

development that are reflected in a Skills Gap., or a gap between the level of worker skills

that employers believe would allow their companies to achieve ideal productivity and growth

performance and the current skills level of their workers. Obstacles to training that give rise

to a Skills Gap reduce productivity and business growth.6,7 If a Skills Gap exists, tackling the

problems that underlie it may be crucial to SME development.

This study explores the issue of the Skills Gap in SMEs in Rwanda’s ICT sector, a

sector that has played a significant role in the country’s reconstruction since the 1994 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 The International Finance Corporation, “IFC and Small and Medium Enterprises,” 2012. 2 For example, as recognition of the role SMEs can play in development, the World Bank Group approved more than $10 billion USD for assisting SME activities between 1998 and 2002 and $9.8 billion USD from 2006 to 2012. Piza Cravo et al., “The Impact of Business Support Services for Small and Medium Enterprises on Firm Performance in Low- and Middle-Income countries: A Systematic Review,” Campbell Systematic Reviews, 1 (2016): 11. 3 Lucia Rivas, Margarita Cano, and Flor de Maria Austria, “Need for Developing Human Capital Management in SMEs,” European Scientific Journal 1 (2013): 227. 4 Ganotakis Panagiotis, “Founders’ Human Capital and the Performance of UK New Technology Based Firms,” Small Business Economics 2, no 39 (2012): 499. 5 The OECD, “Multilingual Summaries: Skills for Innovation and Research,” 2011, 1. 6 Seamus McGuiness and Luis Ortiz, “Skill Gaps in the Workplace: Measurement, Determinants and Impacts,” Industrial Relations Journal 47, no. 3 (2016): 253. 7 Ibid, 272-273.

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genocide and in which the government has prioritized the development of human capital.

Rwanda’s ICT development is incorporated in the National ICT Strategy and Plan (NICI), a

twenty-year ICT sector development strategy from 2000 to 2020. While the NICI I and II,

which were implemented from 2000 to 2010, led to infrastructure and institution

development to establish an ICT ecosystem, one of the main focuses under the NICI III is to

develop people’s skills to promote ICT service delivery.8 Given that the government has

designated human capital development in the ICT sector as the country’s reconstruction, it is

essential to examine how Rwanda’s ICT sector develops human capital. Is there a Skills Gap

in Rwanda’s ICT sector? If so, what should SMEs in Rwanda’s ICT sector do to tackle Skills

Gap? Since recognizing Skills Gap by both employers and workers is the first step to

addressing it, how well do workers and employers in the sector acknowledge Skills Gap?

This case study, which was motivated by my personal observations while working as

an SME consultant in Rwanda, examined these questions by surveying employers and

workers in ICT SMEs in Rwanda on their views on workers’ skill levels and relationships

between employers and workers. While in Rwanda in the summer of 2015, I observed

inconsistent views on skills that are essential for worker productivity by employers and

workers. In assessing the firm, employers shared their concern about a Skills Gap; they

wished their workers would recognize the deficiencies in their skills and work harder to

obtain the necessary skills. Employers mentioned that workers could learn to improve their

skills, particularly their hard skills, through sources such as the Internet. On the other hand,

workers expressed concerns that they wished to receive proper training to improve the skills

relevant to their jobs. Both groups appeared to be frustrated with each other. This experience

led me to believe that such inconsistencies would potentially create mistrust and discontent

within the firm.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!8 The Government of Rwanda. “National ICT Strategy and Plan NICI – 2015,” 6-7.

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Thus, this research was conducted to analyze whether a Skills Gap exists in the SMEs

of the Rwanda ICT sector and whether there is a difference in views on Skills Gap between

employers and workers. The survey was conducted on 17 SMEs comprised of 31 employers

and 94 workers (125 in total) in Rwanda’s ICT sector and consisted of six parts. In the first

two portions, it asked what kind of skills employers considered important for their workers

and examined how competent employers considered their workers in those areas. The third

part of the study asked employers what they consider to be the most critical obstacle in

investing in worker skills training. The fourth part of the survey turned to workers’ views of

needed skill levels, allowing for a comparison between workers’ and employers’ views of

which skills are most important. The fifth portion of the survey asked the same workers how

competent they viewed themselves in each skill identified and explored how their views on

this compared with their employers’. Finally, the last portion of the study asked both

employers and workers about their perceptions of the quality of relationships and interaction

between the two groups.

The results of the survey confirmed that employers identify a Skills Gap in the SMEs

of Rwanda’s ICT sector, but revealed a key difference in how well workers acknowledged

this gap compared to employers. Although the workers and employers surveyed largely

agreed on what hard and soft skills were important to the firm,9 when it came to rating

competency, the employers believed that their workers were not equipped with the skills

listed, while the workers identified themselves as having a higher competency. The study

further revealed that the workers tend to have a positive impression of their working

environment and high level of trust in their employers, indicating that employers should not

hesitate to tell their workers that Skills Gap exists in order to help address the issue. In short,

an analysis of employers’ and workers’ views of skills levels revealed a discrepancy in

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!9 Soft skills in the list are critical thinking, communication, creative thinking, teamwork, time management, and organizational skills.

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recognition of Skills Gap, and an analysis of their views on work environments and

communication revealed a potential means to narrow this discrepancy and address Skills Gap.

This paper will first review the role of SMEs in development and describe the

background of SMEs in Rwanda’s ICT sector in order to place the survey in context. Next, it

will discuss the research methodology and describe the survey design and results in detail.

Finally, it will discuss research limitations, implications, and areas for further research before

concluding.

II. The Role of SMEs in Development

Definition of SMEs

There are various definitions of SMEs. For instance, SMEs can be defined in terms of

the number of employees and assets, turnover rate, capital investment, and industry type. The

International Finance Corporation (IFC) defines SMEs according to the chart below:10

Definition of

enterprise

Number of full-time employees Total assets Total annual sales

Micro Less than 10 employees <$100,000* <$100,000 Small 10-49 employees $100,000< <$3 million $100,000< <$3 million

Medium 50-300 employees $3 million < < $15 million $3 million < < $15 million

*$ in USD

Across these many definitions, SMEs can range from small shops that sell local products to

the community to medium-sized information technology enterprises that provide

telecommunication network services to an entire country. SMEs can also belong to formal or

informal sectors of the economy depending on whether they are legally registered and/or pay

taxes to the government.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!10 The International Finance Corporation, “Interpretation Note on Small and Medium Enterprise and Environmental and Social Risk Management,” 2000, 1.

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SMEs’ Contribution to Economic Development

SMEs are an essential source of job creation, which is a driving force of growth for

developing economies such as Rwanda. Among OECD countries, SMEs account for 99% of

firms and 50-70% of value added across countries.11 Furthermore, it is estimated there are

420 to 510 million SMEs around the world, and 80-95% of these SMEs are in low- and

middle-income countries.12 Although some SMEs are neither labor intensive nor better at

creating jobs, expanding the SME sector is often considered a better alternative for

employment growth than expanding large firms, since SMEs are labor-intensive.13

There are a number of studies on the relationship between SMEs and economic

growth. By using cross-country 1990’s data gathered from 45 countries, Beck et al. (2005)

found that SMEs in manufacturing and GDP per capita are positively correlated. However,

the data suggests that this relationship is not robust in controlling for reverse causation and

simultaneity bias.14 This suggests that SMEs are an essential part of economic success but not

necessarily a cause.

Some studies suggest that the contribution of SMEs to economic growth is higher in

developed countries. Ayyagari et al. (2005) illustrates that countries with higher level of GDP

per capita have larger SME sector in terms of their contribution both to total employment and

GDP. Their findings illustrate that the richer a country becomes, the more employment

opportunities there are in small and medium manufacturing companies as compared to large

manufacturing companies, which results in a larger contribution to GDP.15 This is why the

Government of Rwanda has strived to promote SMEs growth in order to achieve

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 The OECD, “SMEs, Entrepreneurship and Innovation,” 2010, 5. 12 The ILO, “Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Decent and Productive Employment Creation,” 5. 13 Carmen Pages, The age of Productivity: Transforming Economies From the Bottom Up (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 210. 14 Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, and Ross Levine, “SMEs, Growth, and Poverty,” Journal of Economic Growth 10, no. 3 (2005): 222. 15 Meghana Ayyagar, Besk Thorsten, and Asli Demirguc-Kunt, “Small and Medium Enterprises across the Globe,” Small Business Economics 29, no.4 (2007): 418.

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reconstruction and economic development of the country as the country is striving to become

a middle-income country by 2020.

Need for Improving Business Environment for Growth

The performance of SMEs depends on the work environment in which they conduct

business. Harrison et al. (2013) argue that a business environment detrimentally affects firm

productivity and growth rates of African countries. They highlight that though African

countries are not inherently disadvantaged, a lack of infrastructure, access to finance, and

trade credit negatively affects a firm’s productivity. The study demonstrates that when

controlled for crucial firm characteristics that would affect a firm’s productivity such as

geography, infrastructure, political and institutional factors, and access to finance,

manufacturing firms have a conditional advantage in productivity levels and growth and sales

growth.16 The study, therefore, demonstrates that improving the business environment for

SMEs by implementing coherent policies through a collective approach with other

stakeholders is fundamental to facilitate their growth.

In line with their study, Piza et al. (2016) state that institutions often constrain SMEs

from reaching their potential to grow. In their study, they find direct and indirect business

intervention support such as tax simplification and assistance on access to external markets

and technical job training and programs improve SMEs’ performance and productivity.

While SMEs face various institutional constraints and barriers, government interventions are

required to alleviate their constraints.17

Beck et al. (2001) also studied effects of business environment on SME growth by

using cross-sectional firm level survey in 54 countries of developed and developing countries.

They demonstrate that business environment such as financial, legal, and corruption issues

significantly affect SME growth rates in a negative way in SMEs. According to Beck et al., !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!16 Ann Harrison, Justin Lin, and Colin Xu, “Explaining Africa’s (Dis)Advantage: The Curse of Party Monopoly,” The World Bank, 2013, 74. 17 Piza at al., 11-12.

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effects of SME growth rates depend on the size of SMEs, and the smallest SMEs (5-50

employees) are most affected by these constraints. These elements are a critical part of the

ecosystem in which SMEs conduct business, and their study shows that establishing an

efficient ecosystem is critical for performance and growth of firms.18 These studies explain

that, besides efforts made by SMEs themselves to grow their business, there is a need for

policies for building ecosystems that would help SMEs expand and improve business

transactions through partnerships with various stakeholders in countries such as Rwanda.

Human Capital as Important Element of SMEs Growth

Besides improving the business environment, improving workers’ skills is another

important factor in increasing SMEs’ productivity and facilitating SME growth. Haskel and

Martin (1993) argue that a Skills Gap lowers firms’ productivity in two ways. They define

the Skills Gap as the condition in which firms fail to adjust the wage properly and the wage

falls under a disequilibrium. First, the skills gap increases the cost of hiring skilled labor, as

firms replace less-skilled workers with higher skilled workers. Second, skilled workers gain

higher bargaining power, which allows them to choose an easier pace of work at the given

wage.19 Healy et al (2015) share some possibility that the Skills Gap and change in sale of

SMEs have a causal relationship. Although their study argues that the relationship between

the skills gap and change in sale is not always negative, at SMEs which experience a skills

gap, sales in year 2 and 3 (but not in year 1 when they start experiencing skills gap) turned

out to be negative. Though it cannot be proved that there is a negative causal relationship,

change in sale of SMEs may be negatively affected by lack of available skills depending on

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!18 Beck Thorsten, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, and Vojislav Maksimovi, “Financial and Legal Constrains to Firm Growth: Does Size Matter?” The Journal of Finance 60, no.1 (2005): 170. 19 Jonathan Haskel and Christopher Martin. “Do skill shortages reduce productivity? Theory and Evidence from the United Kingdom,” 386-387.

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the year measured.20 These studies suggest that improving skills of workers is important

element of SMEs’ productivity.

While there are few studies on approaches to reducing the Skills Gap, this research

argues that before providing skills training to reduce the Skills Gap, understanding the

shortcomings in their own skills is a way to improve workers’ skills. It is also important that

workers understand how much of a Skills Gap exists; how much they need to improve their

important skills. With understanding of these elements, workers are expected to utilize

trainings more efficiently with clear goals and purpose than without.

III. Background of Rwanda and SMEs

Background of Rwanda

The reconstruction of the country began after the genocide in 1994. After the

genocide which killed approximately 800,000 people, including 75% of the Tutsi population,

the entire country was devastated and left with no infrastructure or economic foundations.21

In a pursuit of reconstruction, the Rwandan government developed Vision 2020, a policy

framework which lays out key elements for economic development. Vision 2020 defines

short-term, mid-term, and long-term objectives for development and provides guidance for

the country to become a middle-income country (per capita income of about $900 USD per

year, from $290 USD today) by 2020.

One of the mid-term objectives shared by Vision 2020 is to establish a knowledge-

based economy, an economy that relies more on intellectual capability than natural resources.

Rwanda seeks to achieve this goal by transitioning itself away from an agricultural-dependent

economy. The shift to a knowledge-based economy is to be driven by two factors. First, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!20 Joshua Healy, Kostas Mavromaras and Peter Sloane, “Adjusting to Skill Shortages in Australian SMEs,” 2484-2485. 21 Philip Verwimp, “Death and Survival During the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda,” Population Studies 58, no 2 (2004): 233.

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Rwanda is a landlocked country that lacks natural resources. The government has urged to

expand non-agricultural industries to establish high-value and high-productivity sectors.

Second, about 40% of Rwanda's population is between the ages of 14 and 35. Thus, Rwanda

expects to build a knowledge-based economy especially in the ICT sector through

entrepreneurship and innovation led by its young population. Rwanda also expects to use its

geographical advantage of being situated between East and Central Africa to expand its trade

and investment. Vision 2020 emphasizes an importance in establishing policies and private

sector investments to achieve this goal.

The 1994 genocide also created a need for securing jobs for the country’s young

population. Due to the genocide, thousands of people fled to other counties to escape the

massacre. This resulted in a largely concentrated youth population, with 51.4% of Rwanda’s

population between the ages of 15-60.22 In the reconstruction process, it is very critical for

Rwanda to create jobs for its youth to promote economic growth through private sector and

entrepreneurship development. Job creation is also emphasized in Rwanda’s Second

Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy 2 (EDPRS 2) as a key link between

economic growth and poverty reduction. The EDPRS 2 states that meeting the supply and

demand of the job market while giving individuals skills needed for employment which could

reduce poverty.23 In the EDPRS 2, Rwanda estimates the population will grow from 11.8

million to 13 million by 2020, indicating the necessity of creating 1.4 million jobs in the non-

agricultural sector.24

The long-term objective of Vision 2020 incorporates fostering the private sector as

the backbone for wealth and job creation. Vision 2020 states that private sector development

cannot be solely achieved by the state or by aid; a combination of the two is indispensable.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!22 The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, “Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey 2014-15 Final Report,” 14. 23 Rwanda Development Board, Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy II, 2013, 58. 24 Republic of Rwanda Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, “Vision 2020,” 2000, 17.

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Vision 2020 defines private sector stimulation as the development of exports and

competitiveness, which is achieved by strengthening the financial sector and informational

technology. In light of this, Rwanda has developed a strong ecosystem for the private sector.

In the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report, which provides measures of business

regulations and their enforcement, Rwanda ranked 46th out of 189 countries in the 2015,

making the country the easiest place to do business in East and Central Africa and the 3rd

easiest place in Africa.25

Vision 2020 also identifies several important pillars to achieve economic

development. Among its pillars, two pillars that are the main focus of this research are human

resource development and private sector-led development. The first pillar emphasizes

education, especially vocational and technical training in fields such as technology,

engineering, and management. This pillar also emphasizes innovation; it points out how skills

development should particularly focus on young small-scale entrepreneurs since the youth

population are considered to be the drivers of innovation. It also reiterates that skills

development in the ICT sector is essential in order to foster qualified workers who can lead

technological innovations and facilitate a shift from an agricultural to an industrial- and

telecommunications-based economy.

The second pillar of private sector development reflects a need for promoting foreign

investment and local business. Rwanda envisions the private sector accelerating the

productivity and competitiveness of products and services, and the role of the government in

ensuring infrastructure, legal structures, and human resources is key for this purpose. This

pillar also highlights the government’s will to focus not only on the formal sector but also on

the informal sector which is one of the drivers of private sector development.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!25 Rwanda Development Board, “Rwanda Among Top 3 Easiest Places to Do Business in Africa.”!!

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SMEs in Rwanda

The contribution by SMEs to the economy is immense. In 2010, SMEs comprised

98% of business and 41% of all private sector employment in Rwanda including the ICT

sector.26 The following chart demonstrates how the Government of Rwanda defines SMEs:

Size of enterprise Net capital investments

(million RwF)

Annual turnover (million RwF) Number of employees

Micro enterprise Less than 0.5 Less than 0.3 1 to 3 Small enterprise 0.5 to 15 0.3 to 12 4 to 30

Medium enterprise 15 to 75 12 to 50 31 to 100 Large enterprise More than 75 More than 50 More than 100

Source: Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Development Policy27

According to the 2014 Establishment Census of Rwanda, about 90% of the total

number of establishments are micro enterprises and 8.7% are small enterprises.28 The number

of all sizes of enterprises has increased from 2011. Large establishments have the largest

percentage increase of 102.9%, followed by small establishments by 28.2%, micro by 24.1%,

and medium by 19.0%.29 Even though large establishments experienced the largest increase,

micro, small, and medium establishments still play a significant role in creating jobs and

stabilizing the economy. SMEs are also recognized as an economic development strategy to

create jobs and reduce trade imbalances by increasing the value-added exports to increase

export revenue.30

However, SMEs in Rwanda have met various challenges for growth. To reiterate the

challenges that Rwandan SMEs face, the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 2000 published

the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Development Policy.31 This policy identifies key

challenges to SMEs growth particularly a lack of time and resources to invest in human

capital building. They also lack access to market information and financial resources. The

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!26 Ministry of Trade and Industry, “Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Development Policy,” June 2010, 15. 27 Ibid., 7. 28 National Institute of Statistics Rwanda, “2014 Establishment Census,” 2014. 10 29 Ibid., 20 30 Ministry of Trade and Industry, “Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Development Policy,” 2010. 5. 31 The report has not been updated, thus the data used in this study is not updated.

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policy highlights how SMEs tend to depend on a single individual or a small group of people

to develop business ideas. This shows that SMEs operate in a very limited capacity in terms

of human and financial resources, which makes it difficult for them to advance their business.

The growth of SMEs in Rwanda not only creates wealth and jobs for the local

population, it also contributes to the decreasing trade imbalances. The country’s trade

imbalances which increased from $229 million USD to $770 million USD from 2005 to 2009

because the growth increases value-added exports to increase trade revenue. Value-addition

products by SMEs growth encompass agriculture, essential oils, business process outsourcing

(e.g. software development), agro-processing, light metal industries, and creative industries

(e.g. music, handicrafts),32 which implies a wide range of SMEs’ activities and contribution

in the country.

SMEs are also regarded as potential large sources of tax revenues, accumulating

RwF4.9 billion (approx. $6.27 million USD)33 annually. While external grants and borrowing

accounts for 48% of government revenue, tax revenues from SMEs would contribute to the

decreasing dependency in grant and aid. Though only 24% of currently registered SMEs pay

tax on a regular basis due to the fact that a lot of SMEs are not officially registered. SMEs are

still a potential source of revenue due to their size and key role in the national economy.34

IV. Rwanda’s ICT Sector

Among various business sectors, Rwanda has promoted the ICT sector based on a

mission of building a knowledge-based economy to modernize key sectors by using ICT. As

previously stated, the purpose of establishing a knowledge-based economy is to make

Rwanda a middle-income country by 2020. Based on this goal, Rwanda has sought to

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!32 Ibid., 8. 33 Exchange rate: 1RwF=0.0013 USD 34 Ministry of Trade and Industry, “Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Development Policy,” 2010, 5.

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transform the country into an IT-literate nation by promoting deployment and utilization of

ICTs, improving infrastructure, transforming educational systems using ICTs, and improving

human resource development capacities to meet demands of the economy.35 In the process,

Rwanda has envisioned the country becoming a future regional ICT hub, aligning Rwanda

with other regional countries while providing its own people and countries with high quality

services.

The Government of Rwanda has implemented these strategies by formulating the

National ICT Strategy and Plan (NICI). NICI contains four sets of five-year plans which lay

out the country’s ICT development strategy from 2000 to 2020 under the auspices of the

African Information Society Initiatives of the United Nations Economic Commission for

Africa. The NICI process started with NICI-2005 (NICI I) with a time frame of 2001 to 2005

which focused on creating a necessary environment to promote the growth of the ICT sector.

This included building relevant institutions, laws, and a regulatory framework. It also

encompassed facilitating foreign investment in the telecommunication market and

establishing an effective implementation and coordination system.36

NICI-2010 (NICI II) focused on high quality communications infrastructure which

encompassed nationwide coverage of telecommunication and fiber networks and the

establishment of a national data center. Although a number of fixed telecommunication line

subscriptions increased about 10% during the implementation of NICI II, mobile

subscriptions and Internet subscriptions increased 217% and 1,000% respectively. 37

Moreover, in 2008, Korea Telecom, the largest telephone company in Korea, signed a

contract with the Rwandan government to build a new backbone telecommunication network

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!35 The Government of Rwanda and Economic Commission for Africa, “A Review of the Implementation of the Rwanda ICT4D/NICI-2005 Plan,” 2005, 8. 36 The Government of Rwanda, “National ICT Strategy and Plan NICI – 2015,” 6. 37 UN ECOSOC, “Monitoring NICI Policies and Plans in Africa: The Rwandan Experience,” 16.

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and later expanded its work to establish a national mobile LTE network, which facilitated

foreign direct investment in the ICT sector.38

Besides these improvements, NICI I and II emphasized human capacity development

as an important pillar. This is because the Government of Rwanda considered human capital

necessary to meet the changing demands of its economy. This led to educational reforms and

wider ICT usage in public and private sectors transactions. Skills development programs and

trainings to professionals and young adults were created to help develop marketable skills by

several institutions. These various institutions include the Rwanda Development Board

(RDB) initiated by the Entrepreneurship Development Program. This program aims to create

awareness of enterprises and provide entrepreneur skills.39 Recently, Rwanda concluded the

NICI-2015 (NICI III) which focused on developing and improving services in various sectors

through ICT. Compared to previous plans, NICI III is designed to connect ICT to the

development of the country: NICI III envisions carrying out “services development” by

having efficient government services to improve productivity and competitiveness within the

private sector. 40 These services include government services and private businesses to

improve efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness of the country’s economy.

The main objectives of NICI III were for ICT 1) to contribute significantly to GDP

growth; 2) to run efficient government services; 3) to improve business efficiency and

productivity; and 4) to be the foundation for long term and sustainable economic

competitiveness in the service economy. One of the recommendations for NICI III was to

create a monitoring system for projects and leadership to promote each pillar.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!38 The Government of Rwanda, “Rwanda 4G LTE Project Scoops Global Telecom Business Innovation Award,” May 15, 2015. 39 Rwanda Development Board, �Entrepreneurship Development Program,” http://www.rdb.rw/departments/human-capital-and-institutional-development/entrepreneurship-development-program.html!40 The Government of Rwanda, “National ICT Strategy and Plan NICI – 2015,” 6.

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The five focus areas of NICI III addressed key challenges to achieve development of

several key services: skill development, private sector development, community

development, e-government, and cyber security. In particular, NICI III states that skill

development is indispensable for ensuring both the quality and quantity of skilled personnel

to drive development ICT sector and establish a knowledge-based economy. Through this

objective, NICI III aimed to empower people by gaining ICT competencies and improving

access to education and trainings through ICT.

Though the result of NICI III is not yet publicly available, Rwanda is in the process of

carrying out NICI-2020 (NICI IV), the last NICI plan for ICT development. NICI IV aims to

consolidate the NICI process to establish a middle-income country status and to transform

Rwanda into an information rich knowledge-based economy and society.41 Through NICI I

and NICI II, Rwanda was able to demonstrate to the international community its commitment

to becoming a regional ICT hub.

In addition, Rwanda is also committed to the Smart Rwanda Master Plan (SRMP)

which aims to establish a prosperous and knowledgeable society through SMART ICT. The

scope of SRMP is to secure national ICT execution capability, to expand ICT accessibility,

and to establish core networks to enhance economic growth. By achieving this, Rwanda aims

to become a long-term regional ICT hub to promote the country’s international reputation as

a knowledge-based and middle-income nation.42 Promoting the country as a regional ICT hub

requires further development of the sector by building new ICT products and platforms, and

this requires human capital-innovation-growth since innovation derives from needs and

ability of workers to grow. However, if workers are comfortable with the status quo, the

necessity of innovation may be less than workers who strive to learn and grow their

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!41 Ibid., 17. 42 Republic of Rwanda, “SMART Rwanda Master Plan 2015-2020,” 27.

19

companies. Therefore, examining human capital development in the Rwanda ICT sector by

this research is important for the development of the sector as well as for the country.

V. Research Methods

The field survey was conducted for two weeks during the winter of 2015 in Kigali,

Rwanda. The survey was conducted with employers and workers of 17 different SMEs in the

ICT industry in Kigali. A total of 125 people including 31 employers and 94 workers were

surveyed. However, of the 94 workers, 12 had missing data in their responses, so all data

from these respondents was excluded from the statistical analysis. The survey participants

were either members of K-Lab, an open space lab for IT entrepreneurs in Kigali,43 or

introduced by the manager at K-Lab. After receiving permission from employers of each

SME, workers were also asked to participate in the survey with their consent. While the

survey was mostly conducted face-to-face by using online and paper-based surveys, for one

company, the participants took the survey online by themselves. The survey was translated

into Kinyarwanda for those who do not understand English; however, none of the participants

chose to respond in Kinyarwanda.

Though the number of SMEs surveyed was not a large sample of the total SMEs in

Rwanda, it was still not an easy task to find employers of SMEs in the sector to conduct a

survey. It was especially difficult to make appointments with employers remotely prior to the

trip. This is because SMEs employers in Rwanda ICT sector tend to wait to fix their

schedules until the last-minute. Their schedule also tends to change with other activities, thus,

several employers I contacted prior to visiting Kigali preferred to have contact again once I

arrive Kigali.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!43 K-Lab, http://klab.rw/

20

Skills that were selected in the survey are based on the survey conducted by the

Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development of Ontario, Canada, which was

chosen as a model because it offered the advantage of encompassing a wide range of skills

with more focus on soft skills as compared to other surveys.44 A disadvantage of this model,

however, is that it did not include specific hard skills, which this research on SMEs of

Rwanda’s ICT sector also did not address. Separately, the survey questions on the

relationship and communication between employers and workers were based on a work

environment survey conducted by the U.S. State of Connecticut, which was selected as a

model because its questions were found to be clear and concise.45

The skills in my survey were categorized into two groups: soft and hard skills. Two

categories of skills were created because, based on my conversation with employers and

workers of Rwanda ICT sector, they appeared to value hard skills more than soft skills due to

the nature of ICT sector but still think soft skills are important for their work. So, the survey

was designed to separate the two categories so that soft skills would not be ignored.

Acquiring soft skills is critical for business growth since workers often work in

groups, which requires skills that enable them to work with others. Soft skills are skills that

are generally interpersonal competencies which affect each worker as they communicate with

other workers, employers, and clients. The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary

Skills under the U.S. Department of Labor surveyed 400 employers from various industries

concerning their perceptions of basic skills (e.g. reading, writing, speaking) and competencies

of their workers: as skills required for their current and future workers, 92.6% of employers

rated soft skills such as thinking skills (e.g. reasoning, making decisions, thinking creatively)

and personal quality skills (e.g. responsibility, self-esteem, self-management) as the most

important skill, while 54.5% of employers rated technology competencies (hard skills) as the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!44 The Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development of Ontario, “Appendix B: Employer Satisfaction Survey.” 45 Connecticut State Department of Education, “Work-Environment Questionnaire.”!

21

most important for employment. The study by the U.S. Department of Labor also suggests

that it is a significant challenge that workers possess the required level of basic skills, and a

lot of companies have implemented in-house trainings to improve basic skills for workers. 46

This illustrates that soft skills are considered one of the most important elements of

employable workers, and employers expect their workers to have a certain level of soft skills

in order to contribute to companies.

In this research, soft skills are defined as personality traits that are subjective in nature.

Skills listed as soft skills are communication, organization and planning, time management,

creative thinking, critical thinking, and teamwork skills. Hard skills represent technical skills

that are specific to occupations of workers. As hard skills vary, depending on the types of

work expected of workers, in this study, participants are asked to identify the types of hard

skill that are required for workers, unlike soft skills that are specifically given to them. For

hard skills, it was assumed that types of hard skill could be specific to the nature of

occupation for each worker, the survey did not list specific hard skills but rather asked

employers to identify important hard skills for their technical and support workers.

The survey was conducted in person because of the anticipated difficulty in defining

soft and hard skills and other questions. Problems that I encountered in conducting the survey

were whether survey participants would equally define soft and hard skills. This is because it

turned out to be difficult for some participants to distinguish the two types of skills since

types of skills categorized in either group depends on the types of occupation of workers.

Thus, prior to conducting the survey, the explanation of soft and hard skills was introduced to

the participants to make it easier for them to distinguish between the two types of skills.

Employers were asked to answer the same questions about two categories of workers:

technical and support workers. The reason for the division into two categories is that it was

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!46 Greg Richens and Clifford McClain, “Workplace Basic Skills for the New Millennium,” Journal of Adult Education; 28, no. 1 (2000): 28.

22

expected that employers would answer differently about different types of workers. The

definitions of each category of worker were given to the survey participants prior to taking

the survey. Technical staff were defined as those who are engineers in technical areas and

supporting staff were defined as those who work in non-technical areas including marketing,

finance, and accounting.

The survey participants were not asked to identify types of occupation, sex, years of

service, SMEs size, or types of ICT business in order to protect their anonymity. This is

because the purpose of this research is to explore general views of employers and workers on

Skills Gap rather than the views of employers and workers within specific SMEs. The

questionnaires are attached to this research as an appendix.

In order to explore which skills employers consider important and whether there are

important Skills Gap at the firm level, first, employers were asked the following questions:

Question on Importance of skills:

Do you think the skills listed below are important for your employees to conduct their work effectively? Please rate each skill with a scale of 1 to 5.

In Section A in Appendix A, this question asked employers to grade each soft skill and hard

skills after identifying by themselves with 1 to 5 scale. The scale was 1) Not important, 2)

Somewhat important, 3) Neither important nor unimportant, 4) Important, 5) Very important.

Employers were also asked to choose the three most important skills from the list comprised

of soft and hard skills mentioned above.

Question on Satisfaction of skills:

How competent do you think your employees are in the skills listed below? Please rate each skill with a scale of 1 to 5. Please rate the following soft and hard skills on the same scaling basis.

The question is from Section B in Appendix A. The scale was 1) Not highly

competent, 2) Not competent, 3) Neither competent/not competent, 4) Competent, 5) Highly

23

competent. Employers were also asked to choose the three skills that they think their

employers (technical and support staff respectively) have the greatest deficiency.

Question on reasons for lack of training for skills: For [SOFT and HARD respectively] skill you identified47, which of the following, if any, prevent you from providing relevant trainings? How impactful are the following for preventing you from providing skill trainings? Please rate your answer on a scale of 1 to 5. Please grade each soft and hard skills on the same scaling basis.

Furthermore, questions on reasons for lack of skills training were asked and seven

potential reasons were provided: financial constraints, time constraints, not enough trainers,

not responsible of the company, lack of motivation among employees, fear of losing workers,

and training has limited impact.

Question on interaction and communication with each group:

Lastly, please answer questions about your general opinion about rapport (relationship, interaction) with your employees. Please grade your answer from scaling 1 to 5.

As detailed in Section B of Appendix A, after employers identify soft and hard skills

which employers are considered to be deficient with, employers were asked to grade the level

of potential obstacles by using 1 to 5 scale. The scale was 1) No impact, 2) Some impact, 3)

Neither impact/nor impact, 4) Impact, 5) Great impact.

In terms of degree of relationship and communication between employers and

workers, the survey had a separate category on general opinion on rapport (relationship,

interaction with employers and workers) and employers and workers were asked to rate their

relationship and level of interaction with each other by using a scale of 1 to 5. The scale was

1) Strongly disagree, 2) Disagree, 3) Neither agree or disagree, 4) Agree, 5) Strongly agree.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!47 They were asked to identify one skill for soft and hard skills respectively that they think their workers are in the greatest deficiency and asked to rate each potential reason for lack of training.

24

VI. Results

In short, the survey found that employers and workers had different views on the

Skills Gap and work environment. In the first part of the survey, employers graded soft and

hard skills listed as equally important. In the second portion, they said that their workers

lacked those skills. Thirdly, the employers identified financial constraints, time constraints

for employers, and not having enough trainers are obstacles to investing in their workers’

skills. In the fourth section of the survey, the workers’ identification of important skills was

similar to their employers’. In the fifth part, however, their rating for competency level of

those skills was higher than that of their employers,’ implying that there is a Skills Gap. In

the final portion of the survey on quality of communication between workers and employers,

workers indicated a higher level of trust and better views of their work environments than

their employers did. Overall, the survey findings support the conclusion that employers

recognize a Skills Gap in their firms but workers do not, indicating better communication is

needed to address Skills Gap and that employers can take advantage of their workers’

positive views of their work environments in order to initiate such communication.

Section 1: Employers’ Views on Importance of Skills for Technical and Support Workers

In order to identify whether there is a Skills Gap at a firm, or in other words whether

employers’ seeka higher level of skills from their workers than their workers currently have

to achieve ideal productivity and growth performance, it is necessary to first identify which

skills employers consider important. This question is particularly important to analyze what

types of skills (soft and hard skills) employers consider important for technical and support

workers. Table 1 illustrates levels of importance for each skill viewed by employers. The first

six skills given to participants to rate are soft skills. As stated earlier, the specific hard skills

are identified by employers, as it is expected that each employer will view the importance of

25

hard skills amongst their workers differently depending on their occupation. For technical

workers, the most common hard skills identified by employers were programming, coding,

and software development skills. For support workers, it was computer literacy, customer

care, and financial skills.

Table 1: Importance of skills for technical and support workers

Skills Mean of scale for technical workers

Mean of scale for support workers

Critical Thinking 4.43 4.17 Communication 4.43 4.78 Creative Thinking 4.35 4.22 Teamwork 4.70 4.56 Time Management 4.65 4.61 Organization and planning 4.30 4.59 Aggregated Soft Skills* 4.43 4.49 Aggregated Hard Skills** 4.58 4.61

Employers rated importance by using a 1-5 scale. *Calculated by taking an average of six soft skills in the list. ** Calculated by taking an average of three hard skills identified by employers.

Scale Identification 1 Not important 2 Somewhat important 3 Neither important nor unimportant 4 Important 5 Very important

Table 1 describes a scale of importance for each skill. According to the table,

employers consider both soft and hard skills important for technical and support workers

because they rated those skills similarly with over 4.0 (somewhat important). The reason for

including the aggregated soft and hard skills in the table is to compare employers’ general

views on importance of soft and hard skills. While soft skills were given in the survey, hard

skills were identified by each employer, so instead of including all the hard skills identified, it

was considered more effective to aggregate hard skills in order to compare with that of soft

skills.

26

Separately, employers were also asked to identify the most important skill for

technical and support workers. Table 2 and 3 below illustrate list of skills that employers

consider the most important for each types of workers. Employers were asked to choose the

three most important skills from soft and hard skills together. The tables show the number of

employers who selected each skill as one of the top three for their workers. The employers

were asked to identify those skills without putting an order of importance.

Table 2: Most important skills for technical workers

Category Skills

Number of employers who

selected skill as top three

Percent of employees choosing

skill as top three

Soft skill

Critical Thinking 10 0.48

Creative Thinking 10 0.48 Teamwork 9 0.43

Communication 7 0.33 Time Management 6 0.29

Organization and planning 6 0.29

Hard skill Hard skill 1 7 0.33 Hard skill 2 5 0.24 Hard skill 3 3 0.14

Table 3: Most important skills for support workers

Category Skills

Number of employers who

selected skill as top three

Percent of employees choosing

skill as top three

Soft skill

Communication 14 0.78 Organization and planning 9 0.50

Time management 7 0.39 Creative Thinking 5 0.28 Critical Thinking 4 0.22

Teamwork 3 0.17

Hard skill Hard skill 1 5 0.28 Hard skill 2 5 0.28 Hard skill 3 2 0.11

27

Table 2 explains that employers consider critical thinking and creative thinking skills

as the most important skills for technical workers. According to Table 3, communication is

most important for support staff. This data supports the fact that soft skills are chosen more

frequently than hard skills, which implies that for both technical and support workers, soft

skills are essential skills for workers.

Sec 2: Employers’ Views on Level of Competency for Technical and Support Workers

The data supports the idea that most of the employers this research surveyed with

believe that there are important skill shortages at their firms as none of the soft and hard skills

identified important by the employers are graded over 4 (competent).

In terms of level of competency, employers rated the current skill level of their

technical and support workers below competent (grade 4) level, according to Table 4. None

of the skills are rated over 4 (competent) for both technical and support workers. Particularly,

employers consider technical workers less equipped with hard skills than soft skills, skills

that employers identified most important for technical workers in the previous questions.

Table 4: Employers’ views on workers’ competence levels in soft and hard skills

Skills Mean of scale for technical workers

Mean of scale for support workers

Critical Thinking 3.40 3.41 Communication 3.35 3.53

Creative Thinking 3.30 3.12 Teamwork 3.70 3.82

Time Management 3.10 3.18 Organization and planning 3.20 3.29

Aggregated Soft Skills* 3.34 3.39 Aggregated Hard Skills** 2.85 3.04

Employers rated competency level of workers by using 1-5 scale. *Calculated by taking an average of six soft skills in the list. ** Calculated by taking an average of three hard skills identified by employers in sec 1 (importance of skills). The same hard skills are used in sec 2 (competency level)

Scale Identification 1 Not highly competent 2 Not competent

28

3 Neither competent nor in

competent 4 Competent 5 Highly competent

Table 4 shows that none of the skills are graded over 4 (competent), implying that

employers consider that there is Skills Gap at firm level. This raises the question of what do

employers in the Rwanda ICT sector consider to be the most critical obstacle to investing in

the important skills training. By exploring such a question, it was expected to understand

what measures needed to be taken to improve the current condition of human capital

development among SMEs in the Rwanda ICT sector. Several employers mentioned that they

wish the other sectors such as the government or non-profit organizations to conduct training

for their workers. However, they also said that those opportunities are not sufficient to serve

SMEs in Rwanda ICT sector.

Table 5: Skills in most deficient for technical workers

Category Skill

Number of employers who selected skill as

top three

Percent of employees

choosing skill as top three

Soft skill

Communication 11 0.58 Time Management 10 0.53 Critical Thinking 7 0.37 Organization and

planning 5 0.26

Creating Thinking 4 0.21 Teamwork 1 0.05

Hard skill Hard skill 1 5 0.26 Hard skill 2 6 0.32 Hard skill 3 6 0.32

Table 6: Skills in most deficient for support workers

Category Skill

Number of employers who selected skill as

top three

Percent of employees choosing

skill as top three

Soft skill Critical thinking 7 0.41

29

Communication 7 0.41 Creative thinking 5 0.29 Organization and

planning 5 0.29

Time management 4 0.24 Teamwork 0 0.00

Hard skill Hard skill 1 7 0.41 Hard skill 2 7 0.41 Hard skill 3 7 0.41

Table 5 and 6 illustrate the skills considered by employers most deficient for their

workers. According to Table 5, technical workers are considered deficient in communication

and time management skills the most. Table 6 supports the idea that support workers are

considered deficient in critical thinking and communication skills. For both types of workers,

communication skills are identified as one of the most deficient skills for all workers.

Sec 3: Obstacles in Investing in Workers Skills

To explore the potential obstacles inhibiting employers from investing in the skills of

their workers, employers are asked to rate these obstacles. Table 7 and 8 below illustrate the

degree of impact for soft and hard skills respectively.

Table 7: Obstacles to investing skills training for soft skills

Obstacles Mean of scale for technical workers

Mean of scale for support workers t statistics / p value

Financial constraint 3.4 (1.50) 3.18 (1.29) t= -0.52 p= 0.60

Time constraint 3.63 (1.30) 3.59 (.94) t= -0.11 p= 0.94

Not having enough trainers 3.74 (1.33) 3.53 (1.28) t= -0.60

p= 0.64 Not responsibility of

the company 1.78(1.22) 1.94 (1.09) t= 0.42 p= 0.68

Lack of motivation among employees 3.21(1.13) 3.00(1.27) t= -0.52

p= 0.60 Fear of losing

employees 1.74 (1.33) 1.71(1.26) t= -0.07 p= 0.94

Training has limited impact 1.95 (1.35) 1.75(.86) t= -0.50

p= 0.62 * statistically significant at 10% level 0.1 ** statistically significant at 5% level 0.05 *** statistically significant at 1% level 0.01

Scale Identification 1 No impact

30

2 Somewhat impact 3 Neither impact nor impact 4 Impact 5 Greatly impact

Table 8: Obstacles to investing skills training for hard skills

Obstacles Mean of scale for technical

workers Mean of scale for support

workers t statistics / p value

Financial constraint

3.78 (1.40) 3.29 (1.40) t= -1.0218 p= 0.3143

Time constraint 3.39 (1.42) 3.65 (.99) t= 0.6192 p= 0.5401

Not having enough trainers

3.78 (1.31) 3.35 (1.37) t= -0.9395 p= 0.3543

Not responsible of the company

1.94 (1.26) 1.88 (1.27) t= -0.1453 p= 0.8854

Lack of motivation among

employees 2.67 (1.14) 2.59 (1.12)

t= -0.2053 p= 0.8386

Fear of losing employees

1.50 (.92) 1.53(.94) t= 0.0932 p= 0.9263

Training has limited impact

1.78 (1.00) 1.94 (.90) t= 0.5063 p= 0.6160

*statistically significant at 10% level 0.1 ** statistically significant at 5% level 0.05 *** statistically significant at 1% level 0.01

Table 7 and 8 illustrate similar results for soft and hard skills. According to the tables,

obstacles such as “financial constraints,” “time constraints,” and “not having enough trainers”

are rated over 3 (neither impact or nor impact). The tables also suggest that “lack of

motivation among employees (to train skills)” shares a relatively high number for both soft

and hard skills with a scale of 2 (somewhat impact). This supports the idea that employers, to

a certain extent, believe their workers are not fully motivated to improve their skills. There

are no statistically significant results between the mean of scale for technical and that for

support workers in any obstacles.

31

Sec 4: Workers’ Views on Importance of Skills

Given that the employers surveyed believe their employees were not satisfied with

their employees’ skill levels, it is essential to explore the views of workers on skill gaps and

whether there is any difference in views between employers and workers. Workers are asked

to rate the level of importance of each skill for their occupation. As stated earlier, since most

of the workers who participated in the survey are technical workers, this analysis considers

data from technical workers.

Table 9: Comparison between employers’ and workers’ views on importance of skills

Skills

Mean of scale for employers

Mean of scale for workers

t statistics / p-value

Critical Thinking 4.43 (0.87)* 4.74 (.587)* t = 1.9509 p= 0.0539

Communication 4.43 (.746)* 4.71 (.577)* t = 1.8552 p= 0.0665

Creative Thinking 4.35 (.813) 4.51 (.724) t = 0.8767 p= 0.3828

Teamwork 4.70 (.470) 4.78 (.472) t = 0.6842 p= 0.4954

Time Management 4.65 (.489) 4.73 (.548) t = 0.5844 p= 0.5603

Organizational and planning skill

4.30 (.657)** 4.63 (.601)** t = 2.1568 p= 0.0334

Aggregated Soft Skills 4.43 (.490)*** 4.68 (.358)*** t = 2.7024 p= 0.0081

Aggregated Hard Skills 4.58 (.322) 4.63 (.382) t = 0.4765 p= 0.6348

*statistically significant at 10% level 0.1 ** statistically significant at 5% level 0.05 *** statistically significant at 1% level 0.01 Scale Identification

1 Not important 2 Somewhat important

3 Neither important nor

unimportant 4 Important 5 Very important

32

The question for employee to grade importance of each skill is based on Section A of

Appendix B. Table 9 suggests that, like employers, workers also consider soft and hard skills

important for their occupation. Among soft skills, both employers and workers consider

teamwork and time management skills important. Table 9 suggests that, except organization

and planning skills and aggregated soft skills, there are no significant gaps in views between

employers and workers with regards to importance of skills. This implies that they have the

similar understanding of what skills are important for (technical) workers. It is assumed that

the aggregated soft skills has a statistically significant result at 1 percent level while each soft

skill does not show any significance because various soft skill measures do not co-vary very

strongly.

Besides Table 2 and 3 in which employers identify most important skills for their

workers, workers also identity the most important skills for their occupation. Table 10

describes the skills considered most important by workers themselves. Each worker chose

three skills that are most important for their occupation. Table 2, 3, and 10 explain the

number of workers who selected each skill and percentage of their choosing each skill.

Table 10: Most important skills for workers

Category Skills

Number of employers who selected skill as

top three

Percent of employees choosing skill as top

three

Soft skill

Teamwork 35 0.45 Critical Thinking 31 0.40 Creative Thinking 27 0.35

Organizational Skill 24 0.31 Time Management 22 0.29

Communication 21 0.27

Hard skill Hard skill 1 30 0.39 Hard skill 2 19 0.25 Hard skill 3 19 0.25

33

Among soft skills, teamwork, critical thinking, and creative thinking skills are the top

three important skills considered by technical workers. According to Table 2 and 3,

employers also rated critical thinking and creative thinking high for technical workers.

According to Table 2, 3, 10, it seems that employers and workers consider soft skills more

important than hard skills. Again, this suggests that views of employers and technical

workers are similar in terms of important skills.

Sec 5: Workers’ Views on Level of Competency

As seen in the data of employers in terms of skill competency level, employers

identify the current skill level of workers as below a competent level (scale 4). In order to

understand whether workers recognize the existence of a skill gap, it is essential to explore

the views of workers on their own level of competency for each skill.

Table 11: Comparison between employers’ and workers’ views on competency level of skills

Skills

Mean of scale for employers

Mean of scale for workers

t statistics / p value

Critical Thinking 3.40 (.995)*** 4.25 (.734)*** t = 4.29 p= 0.00

Communication 3.35 (.813)*** 4.10 (.752)*** t = 3.93 p= 0.00

Creative Thinking

3.30 (.979)*** 4.19 (.792)*** t = 4.26 p= 0.00

Teamwork 3.70 (1.03)*** 4.59 (.565)*** t = 5.26 p= 0.00

Time Management

3.10 (1.02)*** 4.25 (.783)*** t = 5.51 p= 0.00

Organizational Skill

3.20 (1.06)*** 4.22 (.725)*** t = 5.12 p= 0.00

Aggregated Soft Skills

3.34 (.769)*** 4.27 (.464)*** t = 6.90 p= 0.00

Aggregated Hard Skills

2.85 (.887)* 3.31 (1.05)* t = 1.74 p= 0.09

*statistically significant at 10% level 0.1 ** statistically significant at 5% level 0.05 *** statistically significant at 1% level 0.01

Scale Identification 1 Not highly competent

34

2 Not competent

3 Neither competent/not

competent 4 Competent 5 Highly competent

The question on competency level for workers is based on Section B of Appendix B.

Table 11 suggests that workers rate their own skills level higher than their employers do. The

means of workers’ responses exceed competency level (scale of 4) except hard skills, while

employers rated their workers’ skills less than 4. Clearly, there is a gap in views between

employers and workers in terms of competency level of workers for any skills listed in the

table. The data shows statistically significant results in every skill at 1% except that

aggregated hard skills shows a statistically significant result of 10%. The results suggest that

while employers recognize that there are skill shortages in both soft and hard skills, it seems

that workers tend to consider their own skills level higher than their employers do. This does

not mean; however, that workers overestimate their skills level, since the table only shows a

paired t-test of equality of means between employers and workers. It only compares the

absolute difference between the two means but not the level of the means within the groups.

In order to tackle the issue of skill shortages, both employers and workers need to

recognize that the issue exists within firms because if a Skills Gap is only recognized by

employers, workers may not be incentivized to participate in trainings because they believe

that they are not needed.48

Table 12: Skills in most deficient viewed by technical workers themselves

Category Skills

Number of employers who selected skill as

top three

Percent of employees choosing skill as top

three

Soft skill Time Management 24 0.34

Communication 20 0.28

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!48 Seamus McGuinness and Luis Ortiz, 255

35

Organizational skill 20 0.28 Creating Thinking 13 0.18

Teamwork 13 0.18 Critical Thinking 9 0.13

Hard skill Hard skill 1 37 0.52 Hard skill 2 34 0.48 Hard skill 3 32 0.48

According to Table 12, top three skills identified by workers (technical workers) as

most deficient for them are time management, communication, and organizational skills. By

comparing employers’ views on skills most deficient for workers as seen in Table 5 and 6,

the data supports the idea that employers think soft skills are more deficient, especially for

technical workers, while (technical) workers consider that they are deficient hard skills the

most. This again shows different views on a Skills Gap between employers and workers.

Sec 6: General Opinion on Rapport (Relationship, Interaction between Employers and Workers)

If there are gaps in views between employers and workers in terms of skill shortages,

it is important to explore the relationships and interactions between employers and workers.

This is because employers need to let workers know that a Skills Gap exists in order to raise

recognition. In order to do so, having trust and an effective and open relationship with

workers is essential. In this regard, the survey concludes with exploring the relationship and

quality of communication between employers and workers. If both employers and workers

believe that they have an effective relationship, it is thought to be easier for employers to let

workers know the issue of Skills Gap since workers may be positive enough not to be

discouraged by employers’ identifying insufficient level of skills, or they may be willing to

listen to the concerns of employers. If they do not have an effective relationship, even though

employers share their concern on the Skills Gap, workers may not agree or be discouraged by

employers’ identifying their weakness. Thus, it is worth exploring the views of employers

36

and workers on the degree of the relationship and the quality of communication both have

towards each other.

Given that there are gaps in the views of both employers and workers in terms of

Skills Gap, it is important to understand the degree of communication between employers

and workers since effective communication is thought to be a driving factor for reducing the

Skills Gap at firm level. By asking questions related to employer-worker relationships and

interaction, this research measures how employers and workers view the relationships they

have with each other.

Table 13: Comparison between employers’ and workers’ views rapport

Questions Mean of scale for

employers Mean of scale for

workers t statistics /

p value (Employers) I share the goals of the company with my employees. (Workers) I understand shared goals of the company

4.32 (.582)* 4.59 (.610)* t = 1.81 p= 0.07

I have a good communication with my employers/workers

4.05 (.705)* 4.38 (.685)* t= 1.86 p= 0.07

I create harmony in group at my company

4.16 (.602) 4.22 (.658) t= 0.36 p= 0.72

There is a great trust with my employers/workers

3.58 (1.02)** 4.17 (.889)** t= 2.51 p= 0.01

The working environment is generally positive and supportive

3.58 (.692)*** 4.36 (.755)*** t = 4.10 p= 0.00

(Employers) I feel that I recognize the efforts of my workers. (Workers)I feel that my efforts are recognized by my employers.

3.74 (.806) 4.10 (.928) t = 1.57 p= 0.12

(Employers) I feel that my employees are in control of their work. (Workers) I feel that I am in control of my work.

3.32 (1.11)*** 4.25 (.884)*** t = 3.94 p= 0.00

*statistically significant at 10% level 0.1 ** statistically significant at 5% level 0.05 *** statistically significant at 1% level 0.01

Scale Identification

37

1 Strongly disagree 2 Disagree

3 Neither agree or

disagree 4 Agree 5 Strongly agree

Table 13 illustrates that for every question related to relationship and the quality of

communication, workers gave higher ratings than employers. For instance, questions in

which gaps between employers and workers are widely seen are those focused on trust and

working environment. The question related to “trust” asks employers and workers how much

trust they think there is with the other group. While the mean of employers’ responses is 3.58,

the mean of employees is 4.17, which is statistically significant at the 5% level. This implies

that workers believe there is higher trust than what employers believe. The question on

“working environment” asks the two groups on how much their working environment they

think is positive and supportive for them to work. Employers graded 3.58, while workers

graded 4.36, which is statistically significant at the 1% level. This also suggests that workers

tend to hold their work environment in higher regard than their employers do.

According to the data, since workers tend to believe that they have built trust with

their employers and they are positive about their work environment, it is advised that

employers should utilize these positive factors to reduce Skills Gap within firms. Reducing

Skills Gap requires effective communication between employers and workers, and if workers

think positively about their relationship with employers and work environment, this may

enable employers to share their concerns effectively.

VII. Implications

While the data were obtained from the small sample, the results are open to different

interpretation. One possible implication for employers is that they need not hesitate to tell

38

their workers that a Skills Gap exists in their firm, since the data provided by the survey

supports the idea that workers tend to have a positive impression on their working

environment and trust their employers. Thus, employers should utilize these positive factors

derived from their workers to alleviate the Skills Gap within firms. An implication for

workers is that they tend to consider their competency of skills more highly than their

employers. Thus, workers should make sure at what level their current skills are by taking

their employers’ views into consideration.

As for theoretical implication, as previous studies suggest that building proper

institutions and ecosystems are essential for SMEs growth, which can be tackled by

policymakers. This study adds to those studies by suggesting the importance of tackling the

issue of Skills Gaps within firms through communication channels. It is not only policy

makers but also SMEs themselves can strive to improve human capital and thus to increase

growth of firms. Since there are not sufficient studies with focus on internal measurements

taken by SMEs themselves to improve human capital, this study attempts to provide a new

perspective based on the case study conducted in Rwanda ICT sector.

VIII. Research Limitations and Future Research

This research is based on a field survey in the Rwanda ICT sector. One of the things

that were difficult in conducting the field survey was to maintain the same level of

interpretation on survey questions from survey participants. This was especially difficult in

terms of translating the definition of soft and hard skills. For instance, when soft skills were

given to the participants, they were asked to identify the hard skills that they thought were

important for their workers. Types of hard skills identified by employers and workers ranged

from programming to editing skills, thus, categorizing various skills into “hard skills” might

have caused the definition of hard skills in this research to be too broad. However, this

39

research emphasized the importance of soft skills compared to hard skills by classifying skills

into the two categories. Future research can analyze various skills not only by the two

categories but also by more detailed categories of skills (e.g. listening-based skills, writing-

based skills, or thinking-based skills).

Furthermore, this research categorized workers into separate categories of technical

and support workers, which was difficult for some employers. This is because some workers

had several positions or roles in the company, and thus they could be categorized as both

technical and support workers. Future research could narrow down target firms which have a

commonality in size and service areas or in participants who have the same years of service

within firms.

IX. Conclusion

Motivated by my personal observations on concerns related to skills development

shared by employers and workers in SMEs in Rwanda, this research explored the views on a

Skills Gap between employers and workers based on my case study of the Rwanda ICT

sector. Based on the idea that Skills Gap reflects the existence of obstacles to improved

productivity and growth the research was conducted to analyze whether a Skills Gap exist in

the SMEs of the Rwanda ICT sector and whether there is a difference in views on Skills Gap

between employers and workers at the firm level. The study confirmed that employers

believe there is Skills Gap, but there was a difference in how employers and workers

recognized this gap. The Skills Gap needs to be recognized not only by employers but also by

workers since recognition by workers would enable the firm to tackle the issue of Skills Gap

effectively. In order to do so, proper communication channels between employers and

workers are essential to reducing Skills Gap within firms by raising awareness among

workers.

40

The most critical potential obstacles towards investing in skill trainings identified by

employers are a lack of finances, time constraints of employers, lack of qualified trainers, and

lack of motivation from workers. While employers consider all the soft skills and hard skills

listed as important, workers also viewed those skills are important for themselves. However,

in terms of competency, while employers believe that their workers are not equipped with the

soft and hard skills listed, workers identify all the skills listed with a higher competency

level. This supports the idea that workers tend to consider their skill levels higher than their

employers consider it, while employers identify a Skills Gap within their firms.

The study also supports the idea that workers tend to consider the degree of

relationship and the quality of communication with employers more highly than employers.

Workers also tend to be more positive about their work environment than employers and

seem to believe that workers have more trust with employers than employers believe. Since

workers are considered to be positive about work environment and appear to trust their

employers, employers should not hesitate to identify the lack of skills each worker has.

Though this remain to be an assumption, having trust and positive feelings towards work may

enable employers to communicate with their workers more smoothly while sharing their

concerns including those related to Skills Gap.

Many SME employers from the Rwanda ICT sector I interviewed mentioned that they

wish their workers would improve their skills with training, which is very difficult for these

SMEs to secure, due to the cost of providing training.49 Based on the survey result and

conversations with SMEs employers, they mentioned the importance of having proper soft

skills in addition to hard skills. There is currently no systematic training program on soft

skills for Rwanda’s ICT sector. At a practical level, the Government of Rwanda could put

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!49 Interviews with employers from the Rwanda ICT Sector, January 6 – 15, 2016.

41

more thoughts into policies to promote soft skills development for SMEs in Rwanda’s ICT

sector to reduce the Skills Gap.

However, prior to providing training, it is advised that both employers and workers

need to recognize Skills Gap in order to utilize trainings effectively because tackling the issue

of Skills Gap from both sides would maximize training opportunity. Recognizing Skills Gap

at firm level is the first step towards improving human capital development, and this is a

fundamental to the growth of SMEs of the Rwanda ICT sector. The case study of the Rwanda

ICT sector indicates that one of the ways in which SMEs of the sector can tackle the issue of

the Skills Gap in order to promote business competitiveness and productivity led by human

capital. It also suggests that to raise awareness toward the issue of Skills Gap, both employers

and workers need to encourage communication between the two groups by utilizing the

positive perspectives of workers toward employers and companies as a whole. Finally, the

government should seek to provide skills training on soft skills that are recognized as

important skills both by employers and employees in Rwanda’s ICT sector to reduce the

Skills Gap for the growth and development of the country.

Appendix A

Survey on skills and training in the ICT sector of Rwanda The survey will be kept entirely confidential and is designed to solicit honest and candid feedback that will be used for my research to identify challenges that companies in the ICT sector are facing and to promote skill development.

For Employers Introduction

Thank you for agreeing to speak with me. I would like to ask you some questions about the skills that help your workers perform their jobs well, increasing the success of your enterprise. In answering these questions, I would like you to think about two kinds of workers: Technical staff: Those who tend to work in more technical areas, including your technical and production. Support staff: Those who tend to work in non-technical areas, including your administrative, sales, marketing, finance, and customer support teams.

**********************************************************************************

Section A –Importance of Skills There are a number of skills and abilities that your employees may require to do their jobs well. In this section, I would like to ask you about the skills that you think valuable for your employees for both Technical staff and Support staff. FOR TECHCNICAL STAFF Do you think skills below are important for your employees to conduct their work effectively? Please grade each skill with 1 to 5 scales. (Not at all important, Somewhat important, Neither important or unimportant, Important, Very important) Please grade soft and hard skills on the same scaling basis. Soft skill:

1. Critical thinking: ability to analyze an issue through steps and processes used in problem solving and decision making

2. Communication skill: ability to speak in a clear, concise and correct manner

3. Creative thinking: skill to look at

problem from a fresh perspective that suggests unorthodox solutions

4. Teamwork: ability to interact with co-workers in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and achievement of goals

5. Time management: skill that sets

priorities and allocates time efficiently to complete several tasks within specific

Not important

Somewhat important

Neither important / unimportant

Important Very important

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Appendix A

deadlines

6. Organization and planning: ability to manage time effectively, accomplish day-to-day tasks using orderly approach

7. Others (Specify skill): ________________________

Hard skill: Please fill out three important hard skills for your employers (Technical workers). As you did in the previous section for soft skills, please indicate the importance of each hard skill with 1 to 5 scales.

1. Specify a hard skill

____________________

2. Specify a hard skill ____________________

3. Specify a hard skill

____________________ Among above soft ad hard skills, please select THREE skills from soft and hard skills above that you think is the most critical to your Technical staff. Skill 1: Skill 2: Skill 3: FOR SUPPORT STAFF Do you think skills below are important for your support staffs to conduct their work effectively? Please grade each skill with 1 to 5 scales. (Not at all important, Somewhat important, Neither important or unimportant, Important, Very important) Please grade soft and hard skills on the same scaling basis. Soft skill:

1. Critical thinking: ability to analyze an issue through steps and processes used in problem solving and decision making

2. Communication skill: ability to speak in a clear, concise and correct manner

3. Creative thinking: skill to look at

problem from a fresh perspective that suggests unorthodox solutions

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Not important

Somewhat important

Neither important / unimportant

Important Very important

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Not important

Somewhat important

Neither important / unimportant

Important Very important

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

4. Teamwork: ability to interact with co-workers in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and achievement of goals

5. Time management: skill that sets

priorities and allocates time efficiently to complete several tasks within specific deadlines

6. Organization and planning: ability to manage time effectively, accomplish day-to-day tasks using orderly approach

7. Others (Specify skill): _______________________

Hard skill: Please fill out three important hard skills for your employers (Support staffs). As you did in the previous section for soft skills, please indicate the importance of each hard skill with 1 to 5 scales.

4. Specify a hard skill

____________________

5. Specify a hard skill

____________________

6. Specify a hard skill

____________________ Among above soft ad hard skills, please select THREE skills from soft and hard skills above that you think is the most critical to your Support staff. Skill 1: Skill 2: Skill 3: ************************************************************************************** Section B –Level of Skill

Now I would like to you focus on the current level of skill of your employees. Please answer for both Technical staff and Support staff.

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Not important

Somewhat important

Neither important / unimportant

Important Very important

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Appendix A

TECHNICAL STAFF How do you think your technical staffs are competent for skills below? Please grade each skill with 1 to 5 scales. (Highly competent, competent, neither competent or not competent, not competent, not highly competent) Please grade soft and hard skills on the same scaling basis. Soft skill:

1. Critical thinking: ability to analyze an issue through steps and processes used in problem solving and decision making

2. Communication skill: ability to speak in a clear, concise and correct manner

3. Creative thinking: skill to look at problem from a fresh perspective that suggests unorthodox solutions

4. Teamwork: ability to interact with

co-workers in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and achievement of goals

5. Time management: skill that sets

priorities and allocates time efficiently to complete several tasks within specific deadlines

6. Organization and planning: ability to manage time effectively, accomplish day-to-day tasks using orderly approach

7. Others (specify):_________________________

Hard skill: Please identify three hard skills that your Technical staff are not competent enough. Please grade each skill with 1 to 5 scales to identify two hard skills that your employees (Technical staff) are not competent. (Highly competent, competent, neither competent or not competent, not competent, not highly competent) Please grade soft and hard skills on the same scaling basis.

1. Specify a hard skill _______________

2. Specify a hard skill________________

3. Specify a hard skill________________

Please identify one soft skill and one hard skill that your employees from Technical staff are in the greatest deficiency from the skills above.

Not highly

competent

Not competent

Neither competent/not

competent

Competent Highly competent

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Not highly

competent

Not competent

Neither competent/not

competent

Competent Highly competent

1 2 3 4 5

Appendix A

Soft Skill: Hard Skill: For SOFT SKILL you identified, which of the followings, if any, prevent you from having trainings inside or outside your company? How impactful are followings for preventing? Please grade your answer from scale 1 to 5. Please grade soft and hard skills on the same scaling basis.

• Financial constrain of

company

• Time constraint for employer

(too busy with other work) !

• Not responsibility of the company

!

• Fear of losing employees

Trainings have limited impact!

• Lack of motivation to learn

among employees

• Not enough qualified trainers

If others, please specify: __________________________________

For HARD SKILL you identified, which of the followings, if any, prevent you from having trainings inside or outside your company? How impactful are followings for preventing? Please grade your answer from scale 1 to 5. Please grade soft and hard skills on the same scaling basis.

• Financial constrain of company

• Time constraint for employer

(too busy with other work)

• Not responsibility of the company

• Fear of losing employees

• Trainings have limited impact

1 2 3 4 5

Not impact Some impact

Neither impact /not impact

Impact Great impact

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Not impact Some impact

Neither impact /not impact

Impact Great impact

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Appendix A

• Lack of motivation to learn among employees

• Not enough qualified trainers

If others, please specify: __________________________________

**************************************************************************************Section C- Relationship Lastly, please answer questions about your general opinion about rapport (relationship, interaction) with your employees. Please grade your answer from scaling 1 to 5. (Strongly agree, Agree, Neither agree or disagree, disagree, strongly disagree)

• I believe I have shared the goals of the company effectively with my employees.

• I have a good communication with my

employees.

• I create a harmony in-group at my company.

• There is a great trust with my employees. !

!• The work environment where I work is

generally positive and supportive. !

• I feel that I recognize efforts of my employers.

!• I feel that my employees are in control of their work.

The End. Murakoze!

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Strongly disagree

Disagree Neither disagree / agree

Agree Strongly agree

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Appendix B

Survey on skills and training in the ICT sector of Rwanda The survey will be kept entirely confidential and is designed to solicit honest and candid feedback that will be used for my research to identify challenges that companies in the ICT sector are facing and to promote skill development.

For Employees Introduction Thank you for agreeing to speak with me. I would like to ask you some questions about the skills that help you perform their jobs well, increasing the success of your enterprise.

**********************************************************************************

Section A –Importance of Skills There are a number of skills and abilities that you may be required to do your jobs well. In this section, I would like to ask you about the skills that you think valuable for you. Do you think skills below are important for you to conduct their work effectively? Please grade each skill with 1 to 5 scales. (Very important, Important, Neither important nor unimportant, Somewhat important, Not at all important) Please grade soft and hard skills on the same scaling basis. Soft skill:

1. Critical thinking: ability to analyze an issue through steps and processes used in problem solving and decision making

2. Communication skill: ability to speak in a clear, concise and correct manner

3. Creative thinking: skill to look at

problem from a fresh perspective that suggests unorthodox solutions

4. Teamwork: ability to interact with co-workers in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and achievement of goals

5. Time management: skill that sets

priorities and allocates time efficiently to complete several tasks within specific deadlines

6. Organization and planning: ability to

manage time effectively, accomplish day-to-day tasks using orderly approach

7. Others (Specify skill): ________________________

1 2 3 4 5

Not important

Somewhat important

Neither important / unimportant

Important Very important

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Appendix B

Hard skill: Please identify three hard skills that are most important for you and please indicate the importance of each skill with 1 to 5 scales.

1. Specify skill: ____________________

2. Specify skill: ____________________

3. Specify skill: ____________________

Among above soft and hard skills, please select THREE skills that you think are the most critical to you. Skill 1: Skill 2: Skill 3: ************************************************************************************** Section B –Level of Skill

Now I would like to you focus on your current level of skill. How competent do you think you are for skills below? Please grade each skill with 1 to 5 scales. (Highly competent, competent, neither competent or not competent, not competent, not highly competent) Please grade soft and hard skills on the same scaling basis. Soft skill:

1. Critical thinking: ability to analyze an issue through steps and processes used in problem solving and decision making

2. Communication skill: ability to speak in a clear, concise and correct manner

3. Creative thinking: skill to look at problem from a fresh perspective that suggests unorthodox solutions

4. Teamwork: ability to interact with

co-workers in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and achievement of goals

5. Time management: skill that sets

priorities and allocates time efficiently to complete several tasks within specific deadlines

6. Organization and planning: ability to

Not important

Somewhat important

Neither important / unimportant

Important Very important

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Not highly

competent

Not competent

Neither competent/not

competent

Competent Highly competent

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Appendix B

manage time effectively, accomplish day-to-day tasks using orderly approach

7. Others (specify):_________________________

Hard skill: Please identify three hard skills that you think you are not competent with and please indicate your competence with 1-5 scales. (Highly competent, competent, neither competent or not competent, not competent, not highly competent) Please grade soft and hard skills on the same scaling basis.

1. Specify_____________________

2. Specify_____________________

3. Specify_____________________

Lastly, please answer questions about your general opinion about rapport (relationship, interaction) with your employers. Please grade your answer from scaling 1 to 5. (Strongly agree, Agree, Neither agree or disagree, disagree, strongly disagree)

x I have a good communication with my employers.

x I create a harmony in-group at my company.

x There is a great trust with my

employers.

x The work environment where I work is generally positive and supportive.

x I understand shared goals of the

company.

x I feel that my efforts are recognized by my employers.

x I feel that I am in control of my work.

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Not highly

competent

Not competent

Neither competent/not

competent

Competent Highly competent

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Strongly disagree

Disagree Neither disagree / agree

Agree Strongly agree

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

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!

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