Identifying the Gaps in the Preparing of a Business Analyst between the Requirements of the Labor Market and the Standards of Study Programs: Case of Ukraine Vitaliy Kobets1[0000-0002-4386-4103], Valeria Yatsenko2[0000-0002-2925-7470], and Lesia Buiak3[0000-0002-7115-6497] 1 Kherson State University, 27, Universitetska st. Kherson, 73000, Ukraine vkobets@kse.org.ua 2 Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, 90-A, Vasulkivska st., Kiev, 03022 Ukraine ValeriaYatsenko5@gmail.com 3 Ternopil National Economic University, 11 Lvivska st., Ternopil, 46001 Ukraine lesyabuyak@ukr.net Abstract. Efficient human resource management needs accurate assessment and representation of available competences as well as effective mapping of required competences for specific jobs and positions. Thus, definition and identification of competence gaps express differences between acquired and required competences using a mathematical approach to support accurate competence analytics. Lack of skills and insufficient qualifications of employees are cited as major barriers to the adoption of new technologies in the context of Industry 4.0. These changes require skills for data analytics tasks. The purpose of this paper is to investigate gaps in the preparing of a business analyst between the requirements of the labor market and the standards of study programs. For the IT and other industries, the most important competencies from study program of Ukrainian High Educational Institutes, which correspond to labor market requirements, were revealed using RStudio. Keywords. IT Education, Business Analyst, Generic Competencies, Subject Specific Competencies, Study Programs. 1 Introduction The European Higher Education Area promotes the design of curricula focused on the acquisition of competences. Efficient human resource management needs accurate assessment and representation of available competences as well as effective mapping of required competences for specific jobs and positions. Thus, definition and identification of competence gaps express differences between acquired and required competences using a mathematical approach to support accurate competence analytics. Lack of skills and insufficient qualifications of employees are cited as major barriers to the adoption of new technologies in the context of Industry 4.0. These changes require skills for data analytics tasks. Business analytics (BA) becomes increasingly important under rapidly changing business environment. It requires conceptual model for the professional profile of a Data Copyright © 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Scientist in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), namely in the European e-Competence (e-CF) framework and the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) are related with ICT competences/skills, including programming, machine learning and databases. The Data Scientist professional profile combining contributes from different areas, such as computer science, statistics and mathematics. To analyze impact of competences on employment we subcategorized competencies into generic and specific subject competencies for different job types. The results show that data management capability fully mediates between IT competence and BA use. The paper analyses how individual job competences requirements impact on wage changes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate gaps in the preparing of a business analyst between the requirements of the labor market and the standards of study programs. The remainder of our paper is organized as follows: in section 2 we analyze Ukrainian IT market and the imbalance of quality in the IT labor market in Ukraine. In section 3, we present and discuss experimental model where we investigates specific subject competences from high education institutes of Ukraine which significantly impact on average wage of a business analyst. Finally, last section concludes. 2 Related works 2.1. Ukrainian IT market Ukrainian IT market is actively growing and developing over the past few years. It has reached the point of 3.473 USD billion, which is 3.9% of GDP and 22% of service export in 2018. According to IT Ukraine Association estimation, export of IT services grew by 30.2% in 2019 and tot up 4.17 USD billion, and got the better of the traditional product for Ukrainian export – wheat, becoming second export industry [1] and the largest exporter of IT services in Europe [2] (fig. 1). Moreover, according to UNIT.City forecast, Ukrainian exports of IT services will be $5.4 billion in 2020 and $8.4 billion in 2025 [2]. 5,00 25 4171 22,02 3204 2485 4,00 20 1975 3,00 15 2016 2017 2018 2019 2,00 10 Export of IT-services, mln USD 3,92 1,00 5 4,5 5 5,4 3,6 2,7 3 0,00 0 2013 2010 2011 2012 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 % of GDP Industry revenue, bln USD Fig. 1. Dynamics of IT sector development in Ukraine [1,4,5] According to IT Outsoursing News, Ukraine became the first country in Europe within IT outsourcing and software development in 2016 [5] and is still the first outsourcing market in Eastern Europe [6] (fig. 2). In 2017-2018 Ukrainian and with Ukrainian roots companies and startups made 44 deals for a total of $265 million, namely Gitlab ($130 million), Grammarly and BitFury ($110 million everyone). Unit.City also ranked the most promising Ukrainian startups, such as People.ai, monobank, Allset, Solar Gaps and Kwambio [2]. place in Europe in terms of the volume of IT service exports place in the world in terms of quality and efficiency of the freelance workforce place in the world's top countries with the best programmers by SkillValue place in the top 50 world’s developers in A. T. Kearney Global Services Location Index of the most attractive outsourcing destinations place among the 55 most attractive countries out of 126 countries in 2018 according to the Global Innovation Index Fig. 2. Rating position of Ukraine at global IT market [2; 6; 7] Ukrainian outsourcers cooperate mainly with parties from the USA (fig. 3), including worldwide-known companies, such as Cisco, IBM, Atlassian, Travelport, OpenText, Fluke Corporation, etc [7]. However, operations with European businesses, mainly from the UK and Germany, have grown significantly over the years as well [8]. The key areas of domestic IT specialization are: data management, telecommunications, cloud, gaming, e-commerce, media, fintech, healthcare, and others (fig. 4) [9; 10]. 52 UK, Western 8 Europe, the Nordics 35 USA Canada 50 Middle East and Asia Finland 28% Sweden 30% Ukraine Norway 36% Denmark 39% Netherlands 41% Germany 60% UK 64% Fig. 3. Geographical structure of IT services export, % [9; 10] Key factors of the rapid growth of Ukrainian IT sector in the recent years include [12]: stable tax policy; the refusal of regulatory barriers; Ukrainian brand promotion at the international market; and the most important, talent pool and advanced IT education, which, however, is on the verge of a structural crisis. For instance, World Economic Forum named Ukraine among the top 10 countries globally by the number of engineering, manufacturing, and construction graduates [6]. 2% 1% 0% 3% data management 12% retail telecommunications 16% cloud business services 66% gaming transportation media hospitality ↑+25 Computer programming fintech ↑+13 Information consulting e-commerce ↑+24 Data processing travel ↑+17 Other activities education ↑+10 Other software ↑+11 Computer equipment management healthcare ↑+15 Computer games Fig. 4. Structure of services of the domestic IT sector [11] Highly developed education and the increase of demand for IT services have led to the rapid growth of specialists in this field in the domestic market (fig. 5). According to the Ukrainian IT-company N-iX, in 2018 this number has already reached 184-185 thousand people, and according to estimates will reach 200 and 220 thousand people in 2019 and 2020, respectively [6; 7]. 250000 70,00 6 220000 14 60,00 200000 52 50,00 26 150000 40,00 software developers other 100000 30,00 QA testers managers 20,00 50000 55438 10,00 37742 25150 0 0,00 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2016 2017 2018 IT professionals % of growth Vacancies Fig. 5. The IT labor market in Ukraine [7] However, despite the supply steadily climbs, it can not meet the demand for IT professionals and it has created a quantitative imbalance in the labor market - 23,000 annual graduates from IT majors at more than 150 universities, unable to meet existing demand in more than 55 thousand job places [13]. Fig. 6. Key parameters of the Ukrainian labor market within IT industry in 2018 [7] Moreover, the qualifications of current employees do not meet the requirements of the modern labor market. It makes IT companies spend resources on additional training and retraining of their staff. The reason for the quality imbalance is the gap between educational components of educational programs and real requirements of employers to the professional competencies of students and graduates, which are verified during their first job interview. 2.2. The imbalance of quality in the IT labor market in Ukraine Based on a survey of 8,638 questionnaires of IT sector workers, a portrait of a modern Ukrainian IT specialist was drawn up. Thus, 87% of women and 82% of men working in this field, have higher education. It is interesting to note that 58% of women and 64% of men, who hold technical positions, have higher field-specific education [14]. Moreover, IT majors are also popular among second higher education students. “Information Systems” is becoming more and more popular in recent years [15]. Fig. 7. Types of formal and non-formal education of IT specialists, % [14] However, the interest in higher education within technical majors (especially at the second level degree) gradually declines. The reasons are: the irrelevance of some educational components and neglecting of the diploma importance in the real labor market. Consequently, formal education hands to work experience and non-formal /informal education guaranteeing certificates, which are usually more significant for employers to compare with a prestigious university diploma. In long term orientation, this tendency hides the risk to tear down fundamental basics of training of specialists within technical majors at classical universities, in favor of professional or informal trainings. As a result, universities can transform into a networking platform rather than being an educational providers. For instance, a common report of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund and UNIT.City on the topic of IT ecosystem in Ukraine profiles 7 leading universities within technical majors and 18 IT courses and schools. Moreover, the general number of students in IT courses and schools is 46.5 times bigger than at universities. In 2018, 10% of employed and hired people in the Ukrainian IT sphere did not have a university diploma [16]. According to HeadHunter, around 56% and ITUkraine Association - 36% of domestic IT professionals do not have university diploma and this indicator is gradually increasing both in Ukraine and all over the world [17]. Apple CEO Tim Cook has officially stated that half of the 2018 hires do not have a college degree because most colleges do not teach their students skills which are required by large corporations [17]. In spite of old mathematical and IT schools, historically formed in Ukraine, modern systems of secondary and higher education in Ukraine are focused more on the acquisition and reproduction of fundamental knowledge, rather than skills and competencies: professional (ability to solve case studies), as well as soft skills (communication, presentation, organizational, teamwork), which are priorities for employers when being hired. Consequently, the government spends resources irrationally to teach future specialists, while business has been preparing their corporate roster for 3-6 months before hiring (table 1). Table 1. Institutional support for IT education in Ukraine [13] Formal education Nonformal education # Institutions Students # Institutions Students # Institutions Students Kharkiv National University Blockchain- Main 1 2,968 1 30 10 6,000 of Radio Electronics Hub Academy Academy Lviv Polytechnic National BrainBasket 2 2,675 2 6,000 11 Projector 1,500 University Foundation National Technical University CyberBionic 3 3,000 12 Prometheus 700,000 3 of Ukraine “Ihor Sikorsky 4,314 Systematics Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” 4 GoIT 2,000 13 QALight 8,000 National Technical University “STEP” Sigma 4 “Kharkiv Polytechnic 2,105 5 computer 95,000 14 Software 600 Institute” academy University National University “Kyiv- Ukrainian 5 3,500 6 UNIT Factory 900 15 1,600 Mohyla Academy” IT School Taras Shevchenko National 7 ITEA 11,000 16 SkillUP 18,850 6 University in Kyiv 1,324 8 uData Schoo 90 17 iTalent 6,000 Zhukovsky National SoftServe LITS (Lviv IT 7 Aerospace University 1,692 9 2,000 18 IT 1,600 School) “Kharkiv Aviation Institute” Academy SUM 18,578 SUM 864,170 Thus, in order to meet the current challenges of the labor market, IT representatives are forced to actively engage in self-education mostly aimed at learning foreign languages (often English) and developing soft skills through psychological and management trainings (most often in time management, team-building, leadership, project management, promotion, marketing) rarely in hard skills (different programming languages) [15.]. Sufficient system of motivation for the IT work based on an assessment of their competence level should be a tool for solving the problems of IT education development [18]. In 2015, the reform of higher education in Ukraine began. It was aimed at acquisition competencies - Generic Competencies, closely connected with soft skills, and Subject Specific Competencies. To investigate the gap between the quality of higher education and the requirements of employers, we have selected a job position “Business Analyst”. Both IT specialists and economists with analytical thinking and basic knowledge of programming can apply for this position (fig. 8). As a consequence, graduates of three majors are able to work as business analysts: systems analysis (124), economics (051, specialization: economic cybernetics) and information systems and technologies (126). Fig. 8. Basic characteristics of a business analyst 3. Experimental Model Higher education institutions in business analysts training should develop an educational program and frame educational process to form generic (GC) and subject specific Competencies (SC) of graduates in a line with standards of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine in System Analysis (124), Economics (051, economic cybernetics), Information Systems and Technologies (126) [19]. We have carried out a comparative analysis of generic and subject specific competencies according to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine for majors 051, 124, 126 essentials to become a business analyst. As a result, we obtained 18 common generic (Table 2) and 22 common subject specific competencies (Table 3). Table 2. Generic Competencies of Business Analyst by higher education institutions № Generic competencies for Business Analyst 1 Ability to be critical and self-critical 2 Ability to learn and become proficient in modern knowledge 3 Ability to generate new ideas (creativity) 4 Ability to act socially responsible and consciously 5 Ability to abstract thinking, analysis and design 6 Ability to adapt and act in a new situation 7 Ability to search, process and analyze information from various sources 8 Ability to apply knowledge in practical situations 9 Ability to evaluate and ensure the quality of work performed 10 Ability to plan and manage time 11 Ability to work independently 12 Ability to work in a team 13 Ability to make informed decisions 14 Ability to develop and manage projects 15 Ability to communicate in the official language orally and in writing 16 Ability to communicate in a foreign language and work in an international context 17 Information and communication technology skills 18 Interpersonal skills Table 3. Subject specific competencies of Business Analyst by higher education institutions № Subject specific competencies of a Business Analyst Ability to identify knowledge and understand the problems of the subject area, the basics 1 of the modern economy at the micro, meso, macro and international levels. Ability to explain economic and social processes and phenomena through theoretical 2 models, to analyze and interpret the results. Ability to formalize problems described in natural language, through mathematical 3 methods as well, to apply common approaches to mathematical modeling of specific processes. Ability to build correct models of static and dynamic processes, and systems with 4 distributed and lumped parameters, taking into account the uncertainty of external and internal factors. Ability to use modern information technology to implement machine-assisted 5 realization of mathematical models and predict behavior of specific systems, namely: object-oriented approach in the design of complex systems of different types, applied mathematical packages, use of databases and knowledge. Ability to identify the main impact factors of the development of physical, economic, social processes, pick out stochastic and indeterminate indicators, formulate them in 6 random or fuzzy quantities, vectors, processes and to study the dependencies between them. Ability to analyze and design complex systems, crate relevant information technologies 7 and software. 8 Ability to design experimental and observational studies and analyze the results. 9 Ability to analyze, synthesize and optimize information systems and technologies using mathematical models and methods. The ability to perform simulation experiments, to compare the results of experimental 10 data and the solutions obtained. Ability to use computer technology and data processing software to solve economic 11 problems, analyze information, and prepare analytical reports. 12 Ability to analyze and solve problems in the field of economic and social-labor relations. 13 Ability to predict socio-economic processes based on standard theoretical and econometric models. Ability to use modern sources of economic, social, management, accounting 14 information to prepare official documents and analytical reports. Ability to conduct economic analysis of the operation and development of business 15 entities, assess their competitiveness. Ability to identify economic problems in the analysis of specific situations, to offer ways 16 to solve them independently. Ability to formulate optimization problems in the design of systems of management and 17 decision making, namely: mathematical models, optimality criteria, constraints, management goals, choose rational methods and algorithms for solving optimization and optimal management. 18 Ability to apply information technologies to create, implement and utilize quality management system and estimate the costs of its development and maintenance. The ability to manage the quality of products and services of information systems and 19 technologies throughout their life cycle. 20 Ability to develop business decisions and evaluate new technology offers. Ability to manage and use modern information and communication systems and 21 technologies (including Internet based). 22 Ability to create new competitive ideas and implement them in projects (startups). We have analyzed the general requirements of employers for the competencies of applicants for the position of the business analyst on the sites for job search: work.ua, rabota.ua, djinni.co, linkedin.com, hh.ua, it-stars.ua, jobs.ua. Then, we have compared them with standards of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (tables 2 and 3). As a result, we identified generic (table 4) and subject specific (table 5) competencies common both for the labor market and higher education institutions. Table 4. Common generic competencies of a Business Analyst for higher education institutions and labor market GC GC by higher education institutions GC by labor market Ability to learn and become proficient in modern GC1 Desire to learn knowledge GC2 Ability to generate new ideas (creativity) Creativity GC3 The ability to act socially responsible and consciously Responsibility Analytical and logical GC4 Ability to abstract thinking, analysis and design thinking, systems thinking Ability to search, process and analyze information GC5 Attention to Detail from various sources GC6 Ability to apply knowledge in practical situations Problem Solving GC7 Ability to plan and manage time Time Management GC8 Ability to work in a team Teamwork GC9 Ability to develop and manage projects Organizational skills Ability to communicate in a foreign language and GC10 English skills work in an international context GC11 Information and communication technology skills Presentation Skills GC12 Interpersonal skills Communication GC13 NA* Self-motivation *NA – not announced Table 5. Common subject specific competencies of a Business Analyst for higher education institutions and labor market SC SC by higher education institutions SC by labor market Ability to explain economic and social processes and SC1 phenomena through theoretical models, to analyze and Development of use-cases and user-stories interpret the results. Ability to formalize problems described in natural language, through mathematical methods as well, to Requirements collection, negotiations with SC2 apply common approaches to mathematical modeling stakeholders, UML/BPMN of specific processes. Ability to use modern information technology to implement machine-assisted realization of Hands-on experience with data visualization mathematical models and predict behavior of specific via reports and dashboards, Flow charts, SC3 systems, namely: object-oriented approach in the Lucidchart MS Access, MS SQL Server, design of complex systems of different types, applied Oracle mathematical packages, use of databases and knowledge. Experience in the development of technical documentation, requirements, software Ability to analyze and design complex systems, crate development processes (UML, Use Cases, SC4 relevant information technologies and software. Business Rules, Functional Non-Functional Specifications, User Interface Design Specifications, User Stories, Backlogs) Ability to analyze, synthesize and optimize SC5 information systems and technologies using Information systems mathematical models and methods. The ability to perform simulation experiments, to Data analysis, Database Management SC6 compare the results of experimental data and the System, DBMS solutions obtained. Ability to use computer technology and data BA technics (interview, workshop, SC7 processing software to solve economic problems, document analysis, estimation, mind analyze information, and prepare analytical reports. mapping, etc) Ability to use modern sources of economic, social, Management accounting, corporate finance SC8 management, accounting information to prepare and financial statements / 1C official documents and analytical reports. Ability to formulate optimization problems in the design of systems of management and decision Algorithms, data structures, client-server making, namely: mathematical models, optimality application architecture, web application SC9 criteria, constraints, management goals, choose architecture, service-oriented architecture rational methods and algorithms for solving (SOA) optimization and optimal management. Ability to apply information technologies to create, SC10 implement and utilize quality management system and CRM estimate the costs of its development and maintenance. The ability to manage the quality of products and Project management, Software SC11 services of information systems and technologies Development, Software Development Life throughout their life cycle. Cycle and MVP Ability to develop business decisions and evaluate new SC12 Business processes modeling, MS Visio technology offers. Ability to manage and use modern information and SC13 communication systems and technologies (including MS Access, MS Excel, MS Power Point Internet based). Ability to create new competitive ideas and implement SC14 JIRA Confluence, MS Project them in projects (startups). Understanding of agile development SC15 NA* processes (e.g. Scrum, SDLC, Kanban) *NA – not announced Based on open Internet sources of websites for job search, a data set of 118 vacancies for the position of the business analyst was created. This data set includes the name of the employer, vacant position the average salary and required generic and subject specific competencies (Table 6). Table 6. Vacant position profile of business analyst competencies on the labor market № Employer Position Wage, $ GC1 … GC13 SC1 … SC15 1 IT Specialist, Ltd System analyst 35000 0 … 0 0 … 0 Junior Business 2 INNOWARE 35000 0 … 1 0 … 0 Analyst Proxima 3 Business Analyst 50225 0 … 0 0 … 0 International 4 Betinvest Ltd Business Analyst 18000 0 … 0 0 … 1 5 Linkos Group System analyst 18000 0 … 0 0 … 0 Deep Consulting 6 Business Analyst 36000 1 … 1 0 … 0 Solutions Data/Business 7 PMLAB 44000 0 … 0 0 … 0 Analyst Business 8 Paymentwall Intelligence 35000 0 … 0 0 … 0 Analyst EPAM / Epam Senior Business 9 31000 1 … 0 0 … 0 Systems Analyst … … … … … … … … … … 118 Lifecell System analyst 30000 0 … 0 0 … 0 All vacancies can be classified by following industries: IT consulting (48), Banks (23), Retail (12), Government Institution (6), Others (29) (include mobile operators, agriculture, oil, etc.). To determine the relevance of the impact of generic and specific subject competencies on the average wage, we consider a multiple regression model: 13 15 𝑤𝑖 = 𝑏0 + ∑ 𝐺𝐶𝑗 + ∑ 𝑆𝐶𝑘 + 𝑢𝑖 (1) 𝑗=1 𝑘=1 where 𝑤𝑖 – average wage for a job 𝑖, 𝐺𝐶𝑗 – generic competence 𝑗, 𝑆𝐶𝑘 – specific subject competence 𝑘, 𝑢𝑖 – error term. f <- read.csv("HEI and LM.txt", sep="\t", header=TRUE, dec=".") model1 <- lm(data=f, Wage~.) summary(model_1) f2<- read.csv("IT consulting.txt", sep="\t", header=TRUE, dec=".") model2 <- lm(data=f2, Wage~.) summary(model2) It has been obtained that by sampling of all positions of business analysts: 1) use of information and communication technologies or Presentation Skills (GC11) can increase the average monthly wage by +$9361.9; 2) the ability to apply knowledge in practical situations or Problem Solving (SC6) causes an average wage increasing on $10009. Table 7. Statistically significant Competencies for the labor market Model Explanatory Competencies Marginal effect of parameters ($) 𝑹𝟐 (%) GC11 +9361.9 All 22,56 SC6 +10009 IT SC8 +23376 23,83 consulting SC14 -9062 Banks NA NA NA Retail NA NA NA SC13 +29896 Others 87,3 SC14 +36683 Among BA job applicants with GC11 competence, only 10% have SC6 specific subject competence simultaneously, and vice versa: if a candidate has SC6 competence, only every tenth has GC11 competence (fig. 9): mosaic(data=f, ~GC11+SC6, shade=TRUE) For the IT industry, the most important competencies were revealed as follow: 1) SC8 Management Accounting, Corporate Finance and Financial Statements / 1C determined an average monthly wage increase of +$23376; 2) SC14 The ability to form new competitive ideas and implement them in projects (start-ups) for graduates does not meet the requirements of the IT industry (JIRA Confluence, MS Project), and therefore leads to a decrease in salary by $9062, which confirms the lack of competence in the HEA. Among BA job applicants with SC8 competence, only 20% have SC14 specific subject competence at the same time. If the applicant has SC14 competence, only 10% have SC8 competence. Among BA job applicants with GC11 competence, only 10% have SC6 specific subject competence, and vice versa: if a candidate has SC6 competence, only every tenth has GC11 competence (fig. 10): mosaic(data=f2, ~SC8+SC14, shade=TRUE) Fig. 9. Relationship between GC11 and SC6 competencies Fig. 10. Relationship between SC8 and SC14 competencies As well as if the applicant has SC8 competency for the BA vacancy, his/her average wage remains lower than in the case of other competencies required: g2 + facet_grid(SC8~SC14) (fig. 11) gg0 + stat_smooth(method="lm") + facet_grid(~SC14) (fig. 12) Fig. 11. Wage distribution for SC8 competence SC8's competence slightly increases the average wage, while in its absence the wage increases much faster. Therefore, the skills of an accountant in the labor market are worth much less than the skills of a business analyst (fig. 12). For other positions not covered by IT consulting, Banks Government Institutions, the most required competencies were revealed: 1) SC13 Ability to manage and use state-of-the-art information and communication systems and technologies (including Internet-based ones, MS Access, MS Excel, MS Power Point) adds +$29996 each month; 2) SC14 The ability to form new competitive ideas and implement them in projects (startups), JIRA Confluence, MS Project proves that this competence is formed for other industries and raises wages by an average of $36683. Fig. 12. Wage dynamics in the absence and availability of SC8 competence Thus, the wage distribution is set out as follows (fig. 13), where the average wage per year is $ 20,000 and has a significant potential to increase when additional required specific subject competencies in the labor market are presented. Fig. 13. Wage distribution for BA position A system of certificates can be an effective tool to overcome a gap between educational programs [20-23] and employers' requirements [24-25]. This system should be developed jointly by university representatives and companies and will certify the students' competence in certain highly specialized fields of knowledge and confirm the quality of the education obtained through professional qualifications (fig. 14). Fig. 14. Scientific-educational-practical complex of students teaching at IT majors 4. Conclusions To cope with the gap in the quality of higher education and the real labor market requirements, the system of higher education should be reformed. Moreover, all stakeholders should involve this process, which can be guided by the successful practice of European countries and focusing on the development of soft skills. However, it is important to note that soft skills, despite their general nature, depending on the major, should be adapted for IT professionals. For the IT industry, the most important competencies were revealed as follow: Management Accounting, Corporate Finance and Financial Statements determined an average monthly wage increase of +$23376; the ability to form new competitive ideas and implement them in projects (start-ups) for graduates does not meet the requirements of the IT industry (JIRA Confluence, MS Project), and therefore leads to a decrease in salary by $9062, which confirms the lack of competence in the HEA. For other positions not covered by IT consulting, Banks Government Institutions, the most required competencies were revealed: the ability to manage and use state-of-the-art information and communication systems and technologies (including Internet-based ones, MS Access, MS Excel, MS Power Point) adds +$29996 each month; the ability to form new competitive ideas and implement them in projects (startups), JIRA Confluence, MS Project prove that this competence is formed for other industries and raises wages by an average of $36683. References 1. Export of Ukrainian IT increased by 30% in 2019. Available at https://itukraine.org.ua/eksport-ukrainskogo-it-za-2019-rik-zris-na-30.html 2. UNIT.City presented a report on the IT sector of Ukraine: main figures and indicators. Available at https://ain.ua/en/2019/01/30/unit-city-report-on-the-it-sector-of-ukraine/ 3. Government statistics in Ukraine. Available at http://www.ukrstat.gov.ua/ 4. List of services exported by Ukraine. 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