Competencies and training needs in the IST in SYRIA and Mediterranean Countries

The Medforist Eumedis project concerns the implementation of a Euro-Mediterranean network for sharing IST learning resources. Within this framework, a survey on competencies and training has been conducted. This paper presents the main results of the MEDFORIST survey. The survey has targeted mainly small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in different sectors in 11 countries of the Mediterranean region: Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Turkey and Tunisia. The paper is divided into two sections: a general assessment of ICT in businesses and the needs for training. In general, ICT, which is mainly used for administrative and commercial purposes, is mainly considered as an investment and its budget is allocated most of the time towards up-grading, creating new services and maintenance. The majority of surveyed companies have noticed improvements in work organization, time saving and cost reduction. However, they faced problems in training employees, implementation costs and lack of maturity of the market. E-business practices has been introduced in a general manner and on average in nearly half the surveyed enterprises, the majority of remaining enterprises intend to introduce e-business soon. The section on needs in training shows that the staff is trained to new technologies as frequently as the need arises. The training addresses the majority of the staff in all positions. The needs are mainly in the top managerial and the most qualified positions