Mike SimonsGovernment IT departments are suffering a skills crisis that
could threaten the cabinet's ambitious plans, announced last week,
to reorganise government along the lines of dotcom
organisations.
The Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency's latest
annual IT skills survey will make worrying reading for e-envoy Alex
Allan, who is charged with implementing Tony Blair's plans for
information age government.
The CCTA report echoed the Society of Information Technology
Management survey (Computer Weekly 10 and 17 February),
which looked at local authorities, and found a significant ongoing
IT skills shortage in government departments and agencies in
1999.
Some 44% of IT organisations reported "real and immediate
problems" in recruitment and retention of staff. A further 42% said
"the problem exists but it is manageable".
Surprisingly, the CCTA found that "55% of IT units are
experiencing staff shortages that are no worse than, or are
significantly less severe than those experienced within their
organisations as a whole."
It also reported, "Organisations identified an average loss of
14% of IT staff annually. This figure compares favourably with an
industry-wide wastage rate of 15%-20%."
The survey also dispelled the myth that public sector IT staff
are seduced by the private sector. Instead it identified a "musical
chairs phenomenon," where "vacancies and the associated lack of
expertise are moved from one part of government to another, with no
collective benefit and an overall increase in expenditure."
The CCTA reiterated Socitm's call for "greater imagination and
flexibility in recruitment and retention".
It recommended greater emphasis on staff development, the
recruitment of women and adoption of new recruitment approaches
like the modern apprenticeship scheme and graduate trainee
schemes.
Fifty public sector organisations, ranging from central
government departments to agencies and non-departmental public
bodies took part in the survey.
- 1999 IT Skills Survey, CCTA