Businesses pledge support for UK technology degree

Course combines technical skills with management abilities

e-Skills UK has launched an industry-backed university degree that combines business and technology skills.

The BSc in Information Technology Management for Business (ITMB) has been developed in response to industry leaders’ demands for graduates able to cope with an ever-changing and growing IT sector.

Aimed at high academic achievers, its backers include Ford, Morgan Stanley, IBM, Lehman Brothers and Norwich Union.

The University of Greenwich, Reading University, the University of Central England and Northumbria University will offer the degree.

Karen Price, chief executive of e-Skills UK, says ITMB combines technical skills with the management abilities that are vital in today’s business environment.

‘It gives graduates a balanced portfolio of business, interpersonal and project, as well as the deeply technical skills demanded by employers,’ she said.

Employment in the IT sector is forecast to grow at five to eight times the UK average over the next 10 years.

But just five per cent of entrants to the IT workforce in 2002 were graduates.
e-Skills is aiming to expand the degree course to 1,000 students through 22 universities by 2008.