Q&A: BCS chief executive David Clarke

Clarke: Demand for IT skills will grow

Next month, the BCS will announce a series of wide-ranging initiatives and changes
to the UK’s oldest IT professional membership body.

The organisation is closely involved in many of the government’s initiatives to boost the technology sector and to develop the IT skills that will be needed for future economic success.

Computing talked to BCS chief executive David Clarke about the challenges facing IT leaders and IT professionals in the coming months.

Given all the job cuts we have seen among IT staff during the recession, is it a good time to be working in IT?

It is probably the best profession to join. I cannot think of any other sector where there will be such demand for people’s skills as there will be in IT. The kind of work they do might change ­ but it is still the profession of the future.

In that case, what advice would you give to the many out-of-work IT professionals looking for a new job?

The skills needed are changing, perhaps faster than ever before. If people think they can take the same skills they had before and get the same work in the same sort of companies, they will struggle.

The skills coming to the fore follow the way people and companies are using technology ­ for example, social networking is becoming part of business. The skills that go behind enabling that in companies become very important.

Also, interpersonal skills are more important ­ IT has to be part of the business, and employers are realising that. IT professionals need to understand how they should move from where they are to the sort of skills that will be in demand in the future.
There will be much more demand for IT professionals than there has ever been.

The government recently announced its Digital Britain strategy to chart the future of technology in the UK. The plan has had its critics ­ what does the BCS think?

The fact we are putting together a policy to try to transform the UK in this way can only be a good thing. Saying as a country that we have to do this is hugely important. Other countries are doing similar things, and it might be new to us but it is not new to them. Some important countries “get it” ­ the ones we will have to compete with in the future.

The message is that we have to get stuck in and do this, we have to enable technology and move to a more digital way of thinking and doing things, and to have the skills to do that.

We obviously support the document, and we will be working with government on the various elements and saying how we think it might work.

The big issue is how it will be paid for ­ I don’t think that is clear. There is a cost to all this ­ any transformation takes money. You have to invest in the new technology before you can part with the old, and that will be difficult to fund, particularly in the short term.

Does Digital Britain make the UK a world leader, as Gordon Brown has claimed?

It does not make us a leader ­ other countries are in front, and some look to be able to invest more than we are. It is about playing catch-up, but that does not mean we should not do it because we would just get further behind if we don’t.

The skills in the UK are unique -­ we have really creative people. And if we give them half a chance to compete, we will be there alongside the rest of the world. We do not have to have the most investment or the most infrastructure, but we do need enough to allow our people to compete on the world stage, and I think we will have that.

I would rather have something that is achievable and will actually be delivered, than have something too ambitious that cannot deliver.

Do you feel that the government genuinely recognises the importance of IT?

The simple answer to that is no. I don’t think it understands, but that is because a lot of what we do is not obvious.

IT is about enabling other things to happen, and the things we enable get the headlines. This is the most important profession ­ more so than financial services ­ because without us, the finance industry would not work.

But the reaction we get from government today suggests that there is more acceptance of what we are doing, and the signs are starting to come through to us
that they see how important this industry is.

Watch our video interview with David Clarke:

Q &A: BCS chief executive David Clarke part one

Q &A: BCS chief executive David Clarke part two