The expansion of the European Union to 25 member states
last month could create new job opportunities for UK
ITprofessionals.
Much of the press coverage of the EU expansion has centred on
predictions that the entry of countries such as Poland, Hungary and
the Czech Republic would encourage a new wave of jobseekers to try
their luck in the UK. But there will also be opportunities for UK
IT professionals who want to work in the EU.
Analysts, IT industry organisations and recruitment agencies agree
that the expansion will cause a big shake-up in the pan-European IT
industry.
Mike Rodd, external relations director at the British Computer
Society, predicted that UK firms would want to take advantage of
the higher skills and lower wages in the new EU countries.
Rodd said, "The former Soviet states have the advantage of a great
education system with a thorough grounding in maths, science and
languages, and I would expect a lot of UK-based companies to set up
operations there to take advantage of the skills, not just the low
wages."
According to Rodd, most of these companies would need to take with
them the business skills to enable overseas operations to succeed.
He said, "Although the core skills of the ex-Soviet countries are
good, they are still affected by the centralised culture which
organised them, where there was not much effort to empower middle
managers."
Rodd predicted that UK staff who specialise in project management
and systems architecture, for instance, would be in demand from
companies wanting skills to oversee "near-shore" operations in the
new EU countries.
Antony Miller, an analyst at Ovum, said, "I do not see a dramatic
and sudden change to the jobs market as a result of the expansion,
more a dramatic and gradual change over time.
"The IT market in the UK is still depressed, so there are not that
many opportunities for foreign IT staff, but the entrepreneurial
elements in the new member states will certainly want some of our
skill sets to help launch their new operations."
Julian Morison, managing director of corporate accounts at
recruitment agency Spring, also believed there was room for UK IT
staff in the new states. "Harmonisation will be key to changes in
the market, as part of a bigger trading area, cross-fertilisation
of skills and a larger labour pool."
Morison said a vital element in this harmonisation would be the
eventual removal of many work permit requirements. He said,
"Currently, if a company like Nokia wants to form a team of 25
telecoms experts to build networks across different countries, each
staff member usually has to apply for a work permit in most of the
countries joining - this now will not be the case."
Morison agreed that project management would be a key skill for
most of the countries to import, and he thought one area of
expansion in the new countries would be niche software testing
operations.
Andrea Di Maio, an analyst at Gartner, said Poland would be the key
country in driving jobs expansion. He said, "Poland has recently
doubled its number of graduates and spends 6.2% of its gross
domestic product on education, which is higher than France, so it
is going to be a key player."
However, the skills Poland needs to import, said Di Maio, are
related to business processing, such as enterprise resource
planning and customer relationship management. "These are new areas
for most of the new member states," he said.
"The likes of Oracle and SAP have established strong presences in
many of the new EU countries, and I would expect them to take staff
with them from the established EU countries."
Rodd said overseas IT professionals were unlikely to find the UK
attractive. "I do not see a lot of IT professionals from the new EU
states moving here - why would they want to with such a low cost of
living in their own countries?" he said.
The new EU states
Cyprus, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Czech
Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia.