7 mobile development skills that mean higher pay

As more consumers turn to their smartphones to access the Internet, it’s become increasingly important for businesses to execute a mobile strategy for online content. That means if you’re well-versed in Web application development, you’ll also want to build your mobile app development skills.

According to research from Foote Partners, a research group and publisher of the IT Skills Demand and Pay Trends Report, noncertified IT skills for app development tools and platforms increased 28 percent in value and is the third most demanded skillset over the last year. That’s right behind operating systems skills and database skills.

Foote Partners collected data from 734 individuals with certified and noncertified IT skills. This study evaluated marketable skills for Q3 and found a significant increase in the market value for a number of application development skills. Here’s a list of seven that could mean a higher salary.

You don’t need a certification to verify it, but if you are experienced in Apache Cordova, you can expect to make a little more money at your job. It’s jumped 22 percent in market value in the last three months and it’s up 37.5 percent in the last year.

Apache Cordova is used by software programmers to create applications using HTML5, JavaScript and CSS3. You might also know it by the name “PhoneGap.” It was created by Adobe Systems and purchased by Nitobi in 2011. One of the bonuses of this mobile application development framework is that it creates hybrid apps that aren’t strictly mobile or Web. It also frees programmers from relying on platform APIs for iOS, Windows Phone and Android, and instead lets them create a mixture of native and hybrid code.

If you have F# on your resume, you’re in a good position for higher pay. You don’t need a certification for this skill, which was listed as a top gainer for IT pros. The market value for F# skills increased 18.2 percent in the last three months and increased 8.3 percent over the last year.

F# is a multi-paradigm programming language that is used as a cross-platform CLI language, but is also used in JavaScript and GPU code. Created by the F# Software Foundation and Microsoft, F# is an open source, strongly typed, multi-paradigm programming language that uses a combination of functional, object-oriented and imperative techniques. Since you don’t need a certification, you can go ahead and teach yourself this programming language directly from the source at FSharp.com.

Grails has shown a 10 percent increase in its market value over the last six months, and a 22.2 percent increase over the last year. That’s good news if you have Grails on your resume, because it’s becoming an in-demand skill in the industry.

As another open source Web application framework, Grails uses the Groovy programming language for the Java platform. It’s focused on productivity and speed to help developers create programs quickly and efficiently. Grails uses a coding by convention paradigm, which simplifies the process by helping developers cut down on the number of decisions they have to make while still maintaining a level of flexibility.

In the last three months, the market value for Drupal skills has increased 16.7 percent and while it seems to be one of the slower growing skills on this list in terms of demand, it can still help you score a higher salary.

Drupal, a content-management framework, is open source, free, and written in PHP. It’s mostly focused on content management systems, or the backend of websites, whether it’s a blog, corporate or government site. It’s popular for maintaining websites, because although you need to understand programming to code in Drupal, the person using the final product won’t need programming skills to manage and install the framework on their end.

In the last three months, the market value of iRise skills has increased 37.5 percent, after a significant drop 12-months ago. Demand for this skill increased dramatically, as employees with this skill report higher salary earnings.

iRise lets you create software simulations, mostly for businesses, and allows you to see the nearly finished product as well as test it. It’s popular with business analysts, project and product managers, and UX designers so they can ensure the final release goes as smoothly as possible. With iRise you can simulate mobile applications, as well as Web and desktop apps.

While a lot of the skills on this list won’t require you to get a certification to get a higher salary, an Oracle Professional Java SE Programmer certification might be worth your time and money, according to Foote Partner’s findings. The market value for Oracle Certified Professional Java SE Programmer skills went up 14.3 percent over the last three months.

The certification exam, which is also a prerequisite for other Java certificates, evaluates your overall knowledge of Java and related SE APIs. It focuses on the Java programming language, and covers both the basics and more advanced features of the language. Although the exam covers your knowledge of Java, it does not test you on writing algorithms, but rather the components of writing an efficient algorithm. The test includes 60 questions and you’re given 150 minutes to answer; you need 37 correct answers in order to pass the exam. You can also take the OCPJP 6 and OCPJP 7 exams, which focus on newer features in recent Java updates.

Developed by Red Hat, the JBoss Developer certification has seen a 28.6 percent increase in market value in the last three months. The exam tests your knowledge around building Java Enterprise Edition (JEE) applications that can be used on JBoss Enterprise Application Platform and other JEE-compliant platforms.

According to Red Hat, if you’re considering this certification, you’ll want to ensure you have the abilities to improve, fix and extend existing JEE-compliant applications before signing up for the four-hour exam. During the exam, you’ll be asked to configure and create an enterprise ready Web project, work with contexts, work with POJO/JEE components, work with Web/JSF components and web navigation, expose components to external and legacy interfaces and perform security duties.