Singapore needs to develop skills in the ICT industry where there is a gulf of people needed to do the jobs required – specifically, data scientists, according to Mr Michael Dell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dell Inc.

“We don’t have enough data scientists and we don’t have enough people to use the tools [powered by ICT],” said Mr Dell, who was speaking at the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore’s (IDA) Distinguished Infocomm Speaker series held on 2 April.

He noted that a century ago, everybody could do all the jobs available in the market. This, however, is no longer true today where only a small number of people are able to do the jobs available. The gap is likely to widen in the years to come with the emergence of robots, faster computers, and more complex tools, he said.

“Fewer and fewer people are going to be able to do the jobs that need to be done in 10 or 20 years. So we need to continue to advance education, particularly stem education, to maintain and improve standards of living for the 7 billion people in the world,” Mr Dell explained, calling on Singapore to invest in advanced higher education and help plug the hole.

Further stressing the urgency, he said Dell itself needs “a lot of data scientists” as do its customers. The Texas-based PC business magnate regularly meets with leading academic institutions to determine the types of skills required to meet the demand.

He noted that this demand is driven by the realisation that the vast amount of data available today can provide valuable insights to help businesses make better decisions. Generating such insights is critical, for instance, in healthcare where there is now enough computing power to run deeper genome analysis and determine the most suitable regiment for patients of specific types of cancer.

“We’ve been able to find therapy more rapidly and save the lives of otherwise terminal patients,” Mr Dell said, adding that such data analyses have benefited industry segments across the board including education, energy, and finance.

In his welcome address at the event, Mr Steve Leonard, Executive Deputy Chairman, IDA, also spoke about the value of data analytics to Singapore. He said IDA aims to ensure the industry, government, and academics are working together to build Singapore to become “the world’s first smart nation”. “So [we look at] how we work with policies, people, and technology for information to be used in a powerful and meaningful way, while still respecting privacy and the need for security and confidentiality,” Mr Leonard explained.