If we believe everything we read in the papers, the UK is heading for a skills crisis. This time, the media has got it absolutely right.
The number of skilled IT professionals in the UK is at an all-time low, and the situation is at breaking point.
The IT industry is up against one of its biggest challenges yet – one that, if ignored, could see many UK companies disappear as they struggle to find qualified employees to carry out technology-related tasks.
The software industry has borne the brunt of the skills crisis so far. Yet this crisis did not creep up overnight.
A recent study by Lancaster University Management School (LUMS), the BCS and Microsoft highlighted a 50 per cent drop in applicants for computer degrees over the past five years. As a result, there are not enough IT graduates to take their place.
It is not just the techie jobs, such as software development, that have suffered. Digital media, an area on which companies are increasingly dependent, has seen an unprecedented shortfall in employee numbers.
Employers are no longer satisfied with technical skills in isolation, and are looking for people who can combine IT knowledge with negotiation, management and interpersonal skills.
The situation has become so serious that employees lucky enough to possess in-demand IT and business skills can command increasingly high salaries, meaning some companies are struggling to find the money to pay high-quality technology staff.
Tackling the crisis will not be easy. But unless government and business start to rectify the problem now, we will soon be beyond the point of no return.
According to the Office of National Statistics, the current value of software production to the UK economy is £20bn, up from £2.5bn in 2003.
If the shortage of skilled technical staff continues, we will not be able to sustain this level of growth year on year, which will have a direct effect on the economy as a result.
The UK finds it increasingly difficult to recruit women into technology-related jobs; at the same time, most IT related courses are continuing to be taken up by men.
Initiatives such as the e-Skills UK-sponsored Computer Club for Girls (CC4G), which attempts to transform girls’ attitudes towards careers in IT, are a step in the right direction.
But filling the widening expertise chasm will be a significant challenge. To make up for the skills deficit, many companies are focusing on outsourcing.
The LUMS/BCS/Microsoft study estimates that 200,000 basic IT jobs will be offshored by 2010.
But such a practice creates its own problems, as UK customers can become disheartened with having to deal with staff based outside the UK.
The skills crisis cannot be allowed to continue in the UK. Both the government and business must tackle the root cause of the problem, or the situation will become critical and the UK will lose its presence as a technology innovator.
To close the skills gap, the government needs to encourage companies to focus on training.
It is unrealistic to expect the government to front all the costs associated with training; an alternative would be to offer tax breaks for companies that give their staff time off to train.
Such an approach would encourage staff to undertake training, rather than forcing them to use their own holiday entitlement to gain qualifications, which can often cause them to feel resentful.
While training existing staff will solve the crisis in the short term, the government needs to look at education and start from the bottom up.
IT needs to overhaul its image drastically if it is to attract the entrepreneurs of the future.
The UK is one of the most educated countries in the world – and yet when it comes to skills it is found wanting.
It is time the government took action and put plans in place to ensure that the UK never slips into a skills crisis again.
Robert Chapman is the chief executive and co-founder of The Training Camp
IT skills’ effect on productivity
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