SUSE Academic: The Growing Demand for Open Source Professionals

The 2017 Open Source Jobs Report, an annual survey of professionals and managers by the Linux Foundation, indicates that professionals with open source training are in high demand, and that demand is increasing.  In fact, 60 percent of companies are looking for full time hires, a 7% increase over last year’s report.  Furthermore, 67 percent of managers say hiring of open source professionals will increase more than other areas of the business.  There is a greater need than ever for academic organizations to train and educate students in open source skills.

Supply has lagged behind demand for these hires.  Eighty-nine percent of hiring managers said it was difficult to find open source talent, with Cloud, Application Development and DevOps holding top spots in sought-after skills.  In other words, open source professionals are not being trained fast enough.

These trends indicate two things.  First, those who have open source skills have a secure future.  Second, the open source community needs to do a better job meeting the demand for these professionals.  High Schools, Colleges, and Universities (and other educational organizations) can help meet this demand by taking advantage of the SUSE Academic Program.  SUSE supports the development of new open source skills by providing training and curriculum materials to qualifying organizations through the Academic Program AT NO COST.  Through this program, students can get trained on various open source technologies such as Enterprise Linux, OpenStack Cloud, and Software-defined Storage.   By collaborating with the academic community, we hope to be able to meet the growing demand for open source professionals and create a better future for the students of today.

Want to join the SUSE Academic Program?  Register Here

Want to read the full report from the Linux Foundation?  Click Here