The quantum computing industry is booming and is expected to generate nearly $700 billion in value by 2035, but the shortage of skilled workers is threatening to stall progress. To address the exponential growth of quantum jobs needed over the next two decades, top players such as IBM, Microsoft, and Google are racing to address the quantum skills gap and build a diverse workforce.

Currently, only one qualified quantum candidate is available for every three quantum job openings. And the situation is expected to only worsen, with less than 50% of quantum computing jobs predicted to be filled by 2025 unless significant interventions occur, according to a research from McKinsey.

The shortage is already impacting the tech industry, with more than half of quantum companies currently looking to hire but struggling to find candidates with the right skills, the World Economic Forum (WEF) noted. The institute warned that exponential growth of quantum jobs will be required over the next two decades, with startups in quantum technologies already emerging on every continent.

"The consensus is that we know there's going to be a huge shortage on the order of thousands of workers missing from the field in the next five to seven years until 2030," Olivia Lanes, North American lead of Qiskit research and education at IBM, told SDxCentral. "And the thing that I want to emphasize is that we need players across all parts of the stack in the business.”

“People who have traditional software development experience, are good at creating control electronics, have experience working in a lab with radio-frequency electronics, and [have] a traditional EE [electrical engineering] background are all in very high demand," she added.

How IBM, Microsoft, Google address quantum talent skills gap

IBM has been at the forefront of efforts to address the quantum talent gap. “IBM has really backed the idea of open science and open community work to try and increase the interest in the field and develop the workforce,” Lanes said.

One of IBM's main goals is to educate 30 million people in tech by 2030, including quantum, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, cybersecurity, and enterprise computing.

The company's Quantum Educators program is one of its quantum initiatives, which is designed to provide quantum computing teachers — from middle and high school to undergraduate and graduate programs — with free access to IBM quantum systems via the cloud.

Lanes noted there are over 500 university classrooms using this program currently. “We wanted to lower the barrier for teachers to be able to engage with the material and teach it in their classrooms,” she said. “You can use real quantum computers to do experiments and showcase demonstrations in class. You can make reservations on them if your students are going to do a homework problem or an independent study. ”

IBM also launched its first quantum developer certification program in 2021. “We created a test for modern-day developers who might not traditionally be aware of quantum physics to show them the basics of Qiskit and quantum software development,” Lanes said, adding there are around 900 IBM-certified developers to date. IBM's focus on education and open-source initiatives has helped to increase interest in the field and develop the workforce.

The quantum giant recently launched its online Qiskit Global Summer School, a virtual two-week event designed to give the next generation of quantum developers the tools and skills they need to write quantum applications.

“Every single summer we max out at 5,000 students,” she touted. “All these initiatives that we are doing to try to increase community participation have been free. I think we've invested like $100 million in the past few years into supporting these educational initiatives.”

Microsoft has also implemented initiatives to help fill the growing demand for skilled quantum computing professionals including offerings in software, security, infrastructure management, and cloud products.

The company offers a Quantum Development Kit (QDK), which features open-source Q# quantum language and quantum libraries, all quantum simulators for current and future quantum machines, along with extensions for Visual Studio 2022 and Visual Studio Code, and integration with Jupyter Notebooks. The QDK contains components that can be used standalone, independently from the Azure Quantum service.

Additionally, Microsoft has partnered with Brilliant to offer an interactive course called Quantum Computing for learning quantum computing and programming in Q#.

The tech giant also teamed up with quantum startup Classiq to launch a global program for quantum software research and education, offering Classiq’s advanced quantum computing platform and Microsoft Azure Quantum’s cloud access to quantum computers to universities and educational institutions.

Classiq Technical Marketing Manager Erik Garcell recommends that universities use the Classiq and Microsoft program similarly to how they use AutoCAD and other engineering design software.

Google is also taking significant steps to address the quantum computing talent gap. One of its initiatives includes the creation of an open-source framework called Cirq, which is a Python software library for writing, manipulating, and optimizing quantum circuits and running them on quantum computers and simulators.

In addition, Google is collaborating with students and faculty from universities worldwide to foster engagement, learning, and research. The Quantum AI team participates in several programs each year to invest in innovative quantum computing research, while diversifying their team, including internships, Ph.D. fellowships, research scholar programs, research awards, and quantum symposiums.

The future of quantum workforce: more diversity, fewer doctors

Traditionally, the quantum industry has sought individuals with Ph.Ds in quantum computing. However, as quantum technology advances and becomes integrated with the broader computing infrastructure, the need for individuals with both theoretical and practical knowledge will continue to grow.

Lanes notes that IBM has been looking for talent with a strong theoretical understanding of quantum physics, an ability to work at the device level, and a business-oriented mindset. “I think anybody can learn this stuff. I just think people are intimidated by it.”

She adds that companies need to shift how they think about hiring, as there are many capable students with bachelor's and master's degrees who can start working in the field with a bit of mentorship. And she said she also saw more change in the educational landscape over the past three years with more universities offering quantum computing master’s and bachelor's programs.

Booz Allen Lead Quantum Technologist Isabella Bello Martinez echoed that a Ph.D. degree is not necessary to be a successful member of a quantum technology team. And she hopes to see a more diverse quantum workforce.

“I do not believe that the academic route needs to be taken in order to be a successful member of a quantum technology team,” she told SDxCentral. “I hope we have the opportunity to open doors to folks who have been traditionally underrepresented in the physics field and end up with a quantum workforce that is more diverse than the fields that it has drawn on.”

Garcell predicts that eventually, the quantum workforce will be indistinguishable from the software development workforce.

“In fact, it is anticipated that quantum computing will be integrated into the high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure and used by software developers alongside CPUs, GPUs, and TPUs,” he said. “In the future, quantum processing units, or QPUs, will also be commonly available for use by software developers.”

IBM’s Lanes hopes the momentum of quantum computing will increase, as “we're at the very beginning of getting the tractor moving right now.”

“In the future, I expect that everybody in tech is at least going to be familiar with quantum computing as a technology,” she added. “And then, of course, I think there's going to be a lot more people working in deep tech on all layers and all parts of the stack as well.”

In order to realize the potential of quantum computing, Martinez emphasizes, “we really need to see a concerted effort by industry and academia and government, in particular the parts that are responsible for education, really coming together and rethinking the way that we introduce STEM to people at all stages of their academic journey.”