IT Skills crisis continues to bite

New eSkills report highlights employers' concerns over skills levels of new recruits

Employers remain frustrated with the quality of IT graduates with around one in five saying that gaps in technical and communication skills are reasons for not employing them in IT roles, according to the latest eSkills survey.

The report from the government and business-backed skills body questioned 1,000 employers of IT staff and found that almost four in ten believe the level of business, non-technical and interpersonal skills displayed by new recruits did not meet their company's requirements.

Karen Price, chief executive of eSkills UK said that the body needed to address employers' concerns about IT graduates' lack of business and inter-personal skills. However, she added that progress was being made to tackle the problem, with eSkills working closely with a number of universities in a bid to develop IT graduates with a better mix of skills.

"We are working with universities to offer more business-oriented technology degree courses such as the Information Technology Management for Business degree, which will be offered by 13 universities by September 2007," she said. "We are also keen to support universities in devising innovative approaches to professional development for new entrants to the IT workforce – approaches that will help to address outstanding skills gaps and ‘fast track’ new entrants... so that they can take on more demanding, value-added roles from an earlier stage in their career."