A night to remember

The Intellect Annual Dinner held last week was one of those occasions when it felt great to be part of the UK's technology industry. Sitting amongst 500 fellow technologists, talking about the many interesting aspects of our work, I felt truly proud. This feeling only got stronger when our President's Report was launched.

Did you know that we provide a bigger percentage of UK GDP than the transport and agricultural industries combined? Or that one in twenty of the working population is an IT professional? Or more importantly that the technology sector generates over £35 billion of Gross Value Add (GVA) to the UK economy? I also found out that while the sector is performing relatively well at present - we are expecting to grow 1-2% above GDP - there are some things we need to pay much greater attention to if we want to be part of a great industry in a few years time.

Identified as one of the six booster areas in the President’s report, the issue of skills and the workforce is not just a concern for our industry; it also affects the citizen as increasingly we see a world where a degree of IT literacy is necessary. Currently employment in the IT industry is growing five times faster than the UK average, which is a good indicator of the favourable growth rates we are seeing. However technology-related education is declining rapidly, leaving the industry with a shrinking talent pool to hire from. It is vital for the industry that more is done to encourage students into STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects. Equally the industry must work collaboratively with schools, universities and curriculum developers to train and retain the brightest. Indeed we are seeing recognition of the importance of this issue as John Denham, the secretary of state for innovation, universities and skills, is today announcing £200m in capital spending over the next three years to prevent an acute shortage of skills in strategic sectors of the economy.

Improving the UK’s communications infrastructure is another booster high on the agenda. Over the centuries the UK economy has benefited from extensive transport infrastructure, helping drive economic growth. Today a world class communications infrastructure is the cornerstone for any leading 21st century knowledge economy. Ensuring the UK has access to next generation broadband will be key in keeping the economy competitive in a global environment.  A concerted and innovative approach will be required to achieve the right balance of investment incentives and competition that will enable a market led transition to next generation broadband.

These were just a couple of boosters that struck me, the others were:

· Higher professional standards in the sector and its workforce
· Improved trust and confidence in the sectors ability to deliver value securely
· Better exploitation of innovation
· A continually improving relationship with other sectors

The boosters had succeeded in hitting home the point that we cannot rest on our laurels. This is a great industry to be in, but unless we all play our part to nurture it, we run the risk of loosing our edge. It was a great night to be a part of the technology industry, but the boosters certainly left us all with food for thought.

By Carrie Hartnell, Transformational Business Programme Manager