Government schemes to improve the computer literacy of blue-collar
workers and unemployed people make good headlines but will not
remedy the shortage of specific IT skills, writes Nick Booth
Last May, the Government launched a £25m scheme to provide the
long-term unemployed with computer skills training. The logic
behind this initiative was that, with one in four unemployed people
having no computer literacy skills, there is a growing divide
between the unemployed and the demands of the job market.
The Government said it expected to fill 50,000 places on the
courses, and targeted London's homeless and former miners in
Nottinghamshire as potential students. At the time, critics
dismissed this as gesture politics. Ever since, there has been a
stream of small-scale schemes, designed to get the unemployed
online and to persuade pensioners not to be afraid of the
Internet.
But one year on, it is difficult to find any ex-miners working at
the coalface of e-commerce. Nor is it common to find IT developers
who have left cardboard city behind and learned to think outside
their boxes. But this is one of a whole raft of policies designed
to do something about the IT skills crisis and the UK's inability
to capitalise on the opportunities that technology could give us.
For example, there is UK Online, UK Online for Business, E-skills
and a host of other initiatives. Sadly, they do not seem to be
integrated, and neither do they seem to form any cohesive pattern.
Nevertheless, the whole exercise is viewed in some quarters as an
enormous success. It produced a series of what Labour's ex-spin
master Peter Mandelson might have described as "eye-catching
initiatives" that no one would hold the Government accountable for
later on. Yet they would persuade the voters that the Government
was really concerned with the "digital divide". And, doubtless, it
also enabled the Government to massage the unemployment figures,
and all for a fraction of the price of a Dome.
Which makes this government no better than previous administrations
when it comes to understanding how to nurture one of the UK's most
dynamic and wealth-creating industries. Thirteen years ago, the
Conservative Government diverted millions of taxpayers' pounds
destined for unemployment benefit towards sponsoring training
programmes. Rather than teach people to type, this scheme had
loftier ambitions, it aimed to train the long-term unemployed
(anyone who had been out of work for more than six months) for a
career in programming.
Ray Connolly attended one of these training courses, in
fourth-generation programming languages at Tottenham Enterprise
Centre, London, in 1987. "These were supposed to be a licence to
print money, because there was just as big a skills shortage then
as there is now. It seemed too good to be true. You did a 12-week
course, then you could go out and start earning big bucks," says
Connolly, who is now an estate agent.
It turned out that it was too good to be true. Kalamazoo, which
provided the trainers, made good money from running these courses,
charging it is rumoured £1,000 per candidate per week. All this for
the cost of fielding a retired Cobol programmer as a trainer.
"All the guy did was read from a manual for eight hours a day. If
you asked him a question he admitted he did not know the answer,"
says Connolly. "Nobody got anything useful from the course at all."
Except, of course, the employment minister of the day, and the
training companies.
Whether government agencies are naive, or just cynical, is a moot
point. But there is a consensus on the argument that UK governments
have a terrible record in training their population to work in the
IT industry.
The lack of suitable, skilled people who can be trained as useful
IT professionals is a problem that needs long-term measures. You
cannot expect these from government ministers whose currency will
always be, given the unstable nature of their positions, short-term
stunts.
The focus should be on long-term conversion of skills, says Ruth
Spellman, chief executive of Investors in People UK. "In the IT
sector the skills needs are mainly application-based, so employers
should take individuals with the core IT competencies and then run
a conversion course to expand their skills," she says. In other
words, you cannot prepare people for the IT industry. So why
bother?
This is borne out by the experiences of networks specialist 3Com's
education programme manager, Mark Davenport, himself a graduate of
geology. "I take all these government initiatives with a pinch of
salt. Besides, you do not meet many people in this industry who
studied IT or electrical engineering at college. Everyone seems to
have to retrain because nothing seems to prepare you for this
industry," he says.
No government initiative has narrowed the inexorably rising gap
between skills demanded and those the labour market can supply. By
2003, according to analysts at market research company IDC, there
will be 330,000 jobs in IT in the UK that will lack the right
people to fill them, of which 75,000 will be in networking. Which
is why 3Com took matters into its own hands and decided to provide
leadership in this area. Although it has to be said that, altruism
aside, being seen as the saviour of the UK IT industry is a very
effective branding exercise.
"The problem with academia is that it cannot keep up with industry
and the problem with industry is it cannot provide training without
being supplier-specific. Most IT companies want to put their
branding all over a training course, and they want to teach people
only to use their products," says Davenport.
The other big challenge is to meet the specifications of the
training organisations. A 3Com-accredited course carries no weight
with, for example, national vocational qualifications, or indeed
with its US equivalent. In other words, candidates do not end up
with a recognised qualification.
There are plenty of people who think this is not a problem. They
argue the need for industry-specific qualifications, rather than
certificates that satisfy a civil servant with no industry
experience.
David Bloxham, operations manager at recruitment consultancy GCS,
argues that we should be practical and take a lead from the
suppliers. According to research carried out by his company,
graduates would be better off if they had supplier-specific
qualifications, because that is what employers need. "Science
degrees are not training people on essential packages such as Cisco
and Microsoft," says Bloxham.
Nonsense, says Alan McGibbon, managing director of systems
integrator Scalabel Networks. McGibbon says there should be a
government body, or at least an independent industry body appointed
by the Government, to help develop courses, oversee training and
monitor certification so that real, useful qualifications result.
"When BT was a nationalised industry at least it helped to provide
a steady supply of qualified IT people that the industry could use.
Now, with a free market, there is nothing and, since most IT
companies are overseas bodies, there is little interest in the
long-term benefits of the workforce," McGibbon says.
Compare that to today's situation and, if anything, the problem is
worse because companies will not take a stand. However,
universities are not exactly leading the way either. "The skills
shortage is restricting industry," says McGibbon. "But you know why
don't you? The graduates are useless. But it is not their fault
they don't even have a grasp of the basics. What are the
universities thinking of?"
This seems to be an argument that hinges on the vested interests of
whichever body of people you listen to. Meanwhile, anyone looking
for advice from the Government about training will have a long
wait. Try phoning the Department of Trade & Industry, for
example, and you will be referred to a million different Web sites
and offered a pamphlet or even a series of pamphlets. The e-envoy's
press office is no help either, because it only covers e-commerce.
Meanwhile, 3Com appears to have come closest to uniting the aims of
the public and private sectors. In the US, 3Com found a company
that could match its own education programme with
government-approved qualifications. US training company Westnet
produced a generic networking book that could be used to gain
Comptia credits, which are the US equivalent of our city &
guilds qualifications.
Now Davenport is trying to map these onto the City & Guilds
courses and roll out a training programme with the aid of the
Central Government National Training Organisation (CGNTO).
"By summer, there will be IT NVQs in place and, because of that,
colleges will be able to get funds from the Government," says the
CGNTO's Chris Morrow.
All very well, but surely the Government should be driving this?
And will it make a difference? Once UK graduates leave college,
they will still not be able to usefully join the workforce.
"To compete, they must pay an additional £1,000 to £2,000 per
module to gain qualifications such as CCNA, CCDA [Cisco certified
network and design associate] and MCSE [Microsoft certified systems
engineer]," says Bloxham.
"As IT graduates are trying to enter the workforce they are finding
themselves competing with skilled international workers who are
ready and able to take on a project straight from university with
little training."
The consensus of opinion is that, in common with previous
administrations, this government has no real idea about how to
train the workforce for careers in IT. And who can blame it? The
majority of politicians are from a legal background, and most
scientists and IT people are too busy working to get involved in
politics.
"The Government would be better served using commercial training
courses and using the power of buying in quantity to negotiate
cheaper prices rather than getting in smaller companies with little
commercial experience to run these programmes," says Liz
Timoney-White, training manager for Internet Security Systems.
"Then students could meet people working in industry and network to
find employment using their skills, thereby solving two problems at
once, rather than fruitlessly staring into their PCs at home with
no motivation or shared experience to help them."
Which is all very well, but it does not fulfil the main requirement
for any political party in power, which is to be involved enough to
take credit for a scheme, should it prove successful. Meanwhile, a
private company, and a US one to boot, seems to be closest to
solving the problem of the skills crisis that has dogged IT for
decades.
Free Internet training doesn't work
Free Internet training initiatives across Europe are
failing to attract job seekers, according to research company
silicon.de.
In Germany, a nationwide scheme for getting the jobless online has
attracted just 27,000 applicants.
The general introductory course for Internet beginners is a
government initiative aimed to make it easier for the unemployed to
look for jobs on the Web.
After completion of the three-day course, participants receive a
certificate and a voucher for DM50 (£16), which can be redeemed
against future Net access at computer centres commissioned by the
scheme.
In spite of the disappointing number of participants, regional job
centres have vowed to continue running a range of beginners'
courses this year.
Opening up IT in deprived areas
The City School, Sheffield
The school has opened its IT
suites to parents and local people, including South Yorkshire
Police and the staff and governors from local primary schools. Its
courses include hardware maintenance and building your own
computer. Businesses have also taken advantage of the scheme and
the school works closely with other community organisations.
Scottish Power Learning
The company has 17 training
centres around the UK with state of the art facilities for training
its employees which are also available to local people. The centres
are situated in parts of the company's offices that are accessible
to the public and these areas remain open for longer than the usual
office hours. Individual training programmes have been provided for
more than 400 people in Scotland.
Brixton online
Launched in December 1997, Brixton
Online is a non profit-making company which offers design and Web
courses to businesses and local citizens. It has helped 286
companies and its Web site has had 15,000 individuals accessing the
site over the last six months.
Source:
http://www.pat15.org.uk/Useful URLs