Training alliance aims to reverse skills crisis

Despite the existence of 43 national bodies involved in the development of IT skills, the UK is still suffering a widening skills crisis.

This is the view of the newly formed Alliance for Systems Skills (Aiss), forged last month to combat the growing skills shortage.

Bringing together the cream of IT industry bodies and government, Aiss aims to eradicate the duplication, confusion and fragmentation that occurs in the delivery of IT skills training.

James Paice, minister for education and employment, said: 'I congratulate all those involved in this new initiative. It will provide a sound basis for the implementation of a national training organisation for the sector and will help to improve the industry's competitive position,' he said.

The organisation launched six initiatives at its first formal meeting last week. The projects will be jointly managed by Aiss' sixteen partners, who include the BCS, the DTI, the CSSA and IT Industry Training Organisation (Itito).

The initiatives include a plan to improve communications and skills between academia and business; a project to create a national skills framework; a scheme to highlight which sectors and regions are experiencing skills shortages; the setting up of electronic communications between alliance members and the establishment of NVQs for proprietary training.

The hottest topic discussed at the Aiss meeting last week was the lack of communication between industry and academia, according to John O'Sullivan senior consultant at Itito.

He told Computing that while industry complains about the skill-set mismatch of graduates entering industry, academia complains that industry does not give the right guidelines as to what it requires.

Last year, O'Sullivan was commissioned by the Department for Education & Employment and the DTI to carry out a scoping survey into improving the national framework of information and communication skills training.

Entitled Getting Our Act Together, the findings were the catalyst for the formation of Aiss.