e-Skills UK claims 85 per cent of ITMB graduates find work within six months

Skills body e-Skills UK has released figures that show that 85 per cent of its Information Technology Management for Business (ITMB) students find employment within six months of graduating, with the remaining 15 per cent going on to further study.

The degree was developed by e-Skills UK and more than 60 employers, including CA Technologies, HP and BT.

Its purpose is to develop graduates with a broader range of skills compared with current IT degrees. The course has modules in project management, business IT and computer science.

CA CTO Colin Bannister, who has been involved with the ITMB since its inception in 2007, told Computing that the scheme benefits employers because the course develops a broader skillset in graduates than a computer science degree.

"There was a feeling in the industry that graduates were taking too long to be productive for their companies and this is what the ITMB degree was designed to address," he said.

Bannister said the development of ITMB showed that employers and institutions can work together to benefit both end users and vendors, but said there is still work to be done.

"We now need to push this work ethic back into the school system; how ICT is taught in schools and the level of knowledge required at GCSE are things that employers and academic institutions can help with," he said.

Last month, the government announced plans to scrap the school ICT curriculum and focus less on spreadsheets and more on programming and computer science.

Bannister said the move "was absolutely necessary and that the more involvement employers can have in creating a new curriculum, the better".

Bannister said CA employed its first ITMB graduate last September.

"At CA we are looking for a broader skillset, not just the technical knowledge acquired from a computer science degree, but also the project management skills and soft skills."

"The graduate we took on has all these skills and has already shown a broader range of skills than previous graduates who completed computer science degrees," he said.