In an ideal scenario, the education sector works together with the industries to ensure a balance between skilled workforces and job opportunities. But it is not always the case, especially when it comes to digital currency technology. The mismatch between job and education sector has led to many professionals and students registering for various online courses on Bitcoin and blockchain technology.
At present, there are only a handful of universities offering professional courses on these topics. But thankfully, there are few online course platforms that allow people to learn the much-required skills so that they can benefit from the increasing requirement of blockchain professionals in banking, financial and IT institutions.
A leading business magazine has recently reported on the surge in demand for cryptocurrency based courses. The MOOC platform, Coursera is a big hit among those aspiring to make a career in cryptocurrency technology. But these courses aren’t limited to Coursera, few colleges, and other online platforms are also encashing upon the increasing demand by offering various levels of blockchain technology courses.
A recent analysis of the jobs in banking and finance sector showed an increase in job listings for blockchain experts by many leading banking and technology businesses. With banks and financial institutions heavily invested in the research and development of blockchain based applications for their operations, the demand for in-house professionals is expected to go up even further.
READ MORE: Banking Sector Witnesses Surge in Blockchain Technology Related Jobs
The scarcity of qualified blockchain specialists also means a fat paycheck for those who meet the requirements. Jared Kenna, an investor and entrepreneur in digital currency sector was quoted by the magazine saying,
“The supply of people that have extensive blockchain experiences is pretty low and the demand is quickly increasing. Sometimes they get five job offers a day… An experienced blockchain developer can command $220,000 a year.”
Jared believes that the only way to supplement the demand at the moment is to hire a blockchain expert with lots of experience to lead a team of those who have just graduated from a blockchain boot camp (blockchain technology course programs). At present, there are only around 7000 to 8000 people who can work on blockchain technology at various proficiency levels, says Jeff Garzik.
Many companies are also conducting blockchain boot camp for employees within their campuses to prepare them for the upcoming global technology shift. There are plenty of tutorials and blogs available on the internet explaining different parts of blockchain development. Someone with a strong technology background can manage to become a decent blockchain developers by making use of these resources.
This is a small window of opportunity for course providers to offer blockchain technology courses at a premium. Given the increasing usage of distributed ledger technology, we can expect it to become part of the standard curriculum in the coming days.
Ref: Bloomberg | Yahoo Finance | Image: NewsBTC