IT sector must attract young talent

Technology is the lynchpin of how we live and work in the UK today. But there’s a danger that as computers become an increasing part of everyday life in schools, the workplace and at home, young people will begin to take their IT skills for granted.

The influx of technology in the classroom and home is creating an extremely tech-savvy generation of young workers in the UK. They know their way around office applications, host their own pages on MySpace and YouTube, and have mastered a range of gaming skills.

But while many under-25s can certainly offer a broader spectrum of IT user skills than previous generations, it’s wrong to assume they’re automatically equipped to become tomorrow’s technical innovators and IT leaders.

Having the ability to debug source code or manage the IT infrastructure of a large multinational requires specialist training and experience, whether at college, university or in the workplace – completing Grand Theft Auto in a weekend or filming a spoof music video aren’t skills likely to impress potential employers.

According to figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, just over 20,000 people gained a computer science degree in 2005, almost double the number in 2000 – so prospects for recruiters would seem to be getting brighter. The trouble is, many of these IT graduates do not seem interested in pursuing IT careers. According to data from Graduate Prospects, only 42 percent of the IT graduates from 2005 went on to work in the technology sector.

So what puts off IT graduates from entering the industry? A recent announcement from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) about its annual innovation awards perhaps goes some way to answering that question. According to the IET, only four percent of last year’s award entries came from the IT industry – a poor show considering the dominance of technology in the awards.

What I also found surprising was the absence of any apparent prize money. I’m sure that if some of the big-name sponsors, such as BT, Siemens and Orange, offered a financial grant for the winner of their categories it would increase interest levels.

A key issue in the IT skills debate should be how to encourage those with technical expertise to enter and remain in the UK IT industry. IT vendors and bodies such as the IET, E-Skills UK and the British Computer Society all have their roles to play in selling IT as a booming, innovative sector that can offer long-term career paths for young people – especially in the face of a rise in IT offshoring and work permits.