Urgent action needed for IT to avoid a lost generation

The REC is urging the industry to help young people get into IT

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) has called for acceleration in the uptake of IT among young people, claiming it is crucial for the UK to remain competitive.

In its Youth Employment Taskforce report, the organisation calls for urgent action to avoid a “lost generation”.

It said that the recession has had a disproportionate effect on young people's ability to get jobs, and that the one million young people not in education, employment or training in the UK risk being scarred by unemployment.

The REC is now calling for campaigns to accelerate the uptake of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and the creation of technical academies to offer vocational training and qualifications in growth industries and enhance perceptions of vocational options.

“The direct cost of youth unemployment has been put at £4.7bn a year and we know from previous recessions that significant periods of unemployment early in a young person’s working life have serious consequences on their future job prospects.

In the current climate, we cannot expect any increase in government funding,” said Baroness Margaret Prosser, chairwoman of the Youth Employment Taskforce.

“Young job-seekers are not getting the skills and experience they need to take the crucial first step onto the jobs ladder – as a country we are not building the talent pipeline that we need to compete over the next decade.”

In the KPMG/REC monthly jobs report released today, recruitment consultancies recorded another strong rise in permanent staff placements during June, albeit the slowest in five months. Higher placements were underpinned by a further improvement in demand for permanent staff.

Although still solid, growth of temporary/contract staff billings eased to a seven-month low in June. The rate of increase remained below that signalled for permanent appointments.

However, the vertical-specific story was slightly different. There was a significant rise in demand for permanent IT and computing staff, against a fall in demand month on month between April and May.

However, the sector ranked third compared with other verticals, while it was second after nursing last month. The engineering and executive sectors were the most in demand in June.

There was also an increase in demand month on month for contract IT workers, and as was the case with permanent staff this increased compared with May on April. However, it was the only the fourth (compared with the second last month) most in-demand vertical in June.

The report also revealed that there is currently a shortage of .NET developers in the job market, for both permanent and temporary jobs, and a shortage of staff with PHP skills among permanent staff.