Inadequate school IT budgets will make students unemployable

Government is urged to increase school IT budgets to prevent the skills crisis deepening

School budgets cannot develop a high-calibre workforce

Students' career prospects are being curtailed because education IT budgets fall short of preparing people for modern employment, research says.

Some 82 per cent of respondents said their budget was not enough to prepare students to enter sectors such as IT and computer-aided design.

Respondents – comprising 100 teachers, heads of year and IT managers, as well as one Ofsted inspector – were surveyed at two major UK education shows.

The government pledged an extra £230m to schools for this year’s budget.

"The money is certainly not being invested in preparing pupils for work in the IT sector," said Tim Seaman, managing director at Man and Machine which commissioned the study.

"It is clear that there is a real demand for technology by students and staff in the education sector and if this is not addressed soon, future employees will suffer greatly when they begin working."

Meanwhile, separate research by IT recruitment firm ReThink Recruitment found that employers are struggling to fill support roles because of low pay and a shortage of IT graduates.

Support roles now make up 30.1 per cent of all IT job on jobs boards, compared with 24 per cent two years ago. And the number of IT support jobs being created has risen 20 per cent in that time, despite fears that offshoring will wipe out demand for domestic entry-level roles.

But adverts for IT managers have declined 30 per cent since 2006, falling to 3,210 from 4,585.

“We are talking about fewer new jobs here, not mass redundancies, so there is no sense of a return to the post-dot com market when huge numbers of contractors were laid off," said Jon Butterfield, managing director at ReThink.

"But where there is a less clear-cut business case, some IT projects are being put on the back burner and that is leading to a softening in demand for some management and software development roles.”