As chief executive of the newly-formed E-skills National Training
Organisation, Karen Price will have a key role in fighting the IT
skills shortage. She explains to Bill Goodwin her plans on how she
will work with Government, universities, IT users and IT
suppliers
Karen Price's ambition is to talk herself out of a job. "In five
years time, I would like to have solved the skills crisis," she
said, in her first interview since taking over as chief executive
of the E-skills National Training Organisation (NTO), And, yes, she
insisted, "I am serious."
Most Computer Weekly readers have probably not even heard
of the E-skills NTO. Yet this tiny organisation has been charged
with solving one of the most serious problems facing businesses in
the UK - the acute shortage of professionals with up-to-date IT
skills.
The task is central to the Government's dreams of the UK
becoming a world leader in e-commerce. Unless the problems are
solved, the UK's economic growth could be seriously damaged. IDC
Research suggests that the UK will have a shortfall of 300,000 IT
professionals by 2003.
E-skills NTO is one of the Government's flagship public/private
sector training partnerships. It was formed last year by merging
two smaller training bodies, the E-business NTO and the IT NTO.
Price, who ran the E-business NTO, has spent much of the past 12
months welding the two bodies together.
The new organisation aims to be employer-driven. IT directors
from both user and supplier companies will have a heavy influence
on the E-skills NTO's policies and priorities. The organisation
will feed their views back to the Government and act as "a voice
for employers" said Price.
Convincing IT users to take an interest in training policy will
not be easy. In the past, users have tended to leave the task to IT
suppliers, such as Microsoft and EDS.
Yet the involvement of users in the E-skills NTO is vital if the
Government is to hear a balanced view from the IT profession.
Price admits that, until now, NTOs have not done enough to
attract users. "I am starting to meet with IT directors and chief
information officers. There is interest but a lack of awareness,"
she said.
Challenging the short-term attitudes of employers and the
Government to training is a key part of her mission. All the
research shows that employers are struggling to find skilled
people. Yet very few are prepared to invest in training graduates,
hiring older workers, or making it easier for women to enter into
the profession.
"There is a terrifying amount of short-termism, both from users
and from the Government. It is difficult to expect individual
employers to look beyond next week, but I do think we have to work
together to look at least to the medium-term strategy for skills
issues," said Price.
The Government-backed Alan Stevens report, published last year,
was meant to change all of that. Its 16 key action points for
government and industry should have been completed by the end of
the year.
"It has been a missed opportunity," said Price. "I think when it
was initially published there was great interest in it. We should
have hit the ground running last November. We had interest. We had
the employee engagement. Now we need to go back and re-invigorate
everybody's interest and engagement."
Price's first priority is to issue what she described as a call
to action for employers, government and universities. She wants
them to begin working together on the skills problem and has
identified three key objectives:
- A detailed programme of research into the skills
shortage
- Encourage more people to take up careers in IT
- Start dialogue between employers, universities, training
companies and colleges
Making a measurable impact will need a great deal of money. Yet
the indications are that the Government is looking to save money by
creating a single NTO for IT, rather than spend more.
However, that is a battle Price is determined to fight. "I have
always expected that we are going to be at least as powerful as the
two organisations put together. Our agenda is bigger than one NTO,"
she said.
The problem is not so much the amount of money but the way it
arrives. The E-skills NTO receives guaranteed funds of only
£300,000 each year. The rest, some £2.5m last year, comes as
project funding from the Department of Trade & Industry, the
Department for Education and the Regional Development Agencies.
This part of the budget varies each year, depending on how
successful the E-skills NTO is at bidding for projects.
"It is very hand-to-mouth. It does not allow us more than a
12-month plan. Everything is stop, start, stop, start," said Price.
"We need more guaranteed core funding that would enable us to set
our agenda for a longer term."
Some of this money could come from the £6.5bn allocated to the
Government's Learning and Skills Council. Price hopes to convince
the Government to spend a significant slice of this money on IT. If
she is successful, the money could open up a raft of IT training
initiatives for small and medium-sized companies.
The Government has reservations on a training levy for the IT
profession. But Price believes ministers might be willing to
support the idea of matched funding, if employers are prepared to
contribute either in cash or in kind.
"Without a doubt, if more money flowed from employers, more
money would flow from government," said Price. "We are measured and
evaluated by the commitment of employers to us. If employers
invested more than they do, the Govern-ment would invest more than
they do and we would have a long-term approach."
Convincing business leaders to put their hands in their pockets
won't be easy, particularly when many IT departments are facing
pressure to cut costs. "It is a chicken and egg situation. We have
to show that we are making a difference," said Price. "Companies
want bang for their buck.
"That means, getting more people wanting jobs in IT, ready to
step on the rung of the ladder. And we have to ensure that the
skills of people in the sector can be kept up-to-date. Whether that
is through employer education partnerships, or channelling money
through SMEs, that is something we have to work towards."
CV: Karen Price
Karen Price is the chief executive officer of the newly-formed
E-skills National Training Organisation. She aims to work with the
Government, universities, IT users and IT suppliers to ensure that
the UK has a steady supply of people with the right IT skills to
meet the growing demands of e-commerce.
Price's varied career has included a spell in education and as a
director of her own construction business. No stranger to IT, she
joined IBM's corporate affairs division in 1994 and moved to IBM
Global Services three years later. There she was given the task of
setting up a major qualification programme for IBM staff.
Price was chosen to be the chief executive of the E-business
NTO, a predecessor to E-skills NTO, in 1998. She helped to build
the body into a significant organisation, attracting multi-million
pound investments for training programmes.
She has spent the past year unifying the E-business National
Training Organisation and the IT National Training Organisation.
They became the E-skills NTO in July.
Price sits on a variety of government skills and IT taskforces,
including the Electronics Strategy Group, the Qualifications and
Curriculum Authority and the IT Communications and Electronic
Strategy Group.
Key tasks for the E-skills NTO
- A detailed programme of research into the skills shortage. The
results will show which skills are now in short supply and will be
in short supply in the future. They will allow employers,
universities and training providers to plan ahead
- Encourage more people to take up careers in IT. This means
making the IT profession more attractive to the best and the
brightest young people, encouraging more women into the profession
and cross training workers from other professions
- Start dialogue between employers, universities, training
companies and colleges. The aim is to make sure they are training
people in the skills industry needs most