Offshore outsourcing has already changed the skills sought
in the UK jobs market, according to Paul Smith, group marketing
director of recruitment consultancy Harvey Nash.
"IT staff need skills such as project management, business analysis
and systems architecture," he said.
When it comes to skills and training, UK companies could learn from
offshore suppliers, many of whom have accreditation to demonstrate
their expertise, he added. "Any decent offshore company has some
form of accreditation, such as the Capability Maturity Model. A
world-class [offshore supplier] will have level five but there are
not many UK companies that have level three, let alone level
five.
"IT departments and software departments [in the UK] have little
expertise in working with formal processes for software development
or project management."
The IT jobs most at risk from offshore outsourcing include
straightforward coding and software development work, which can be
done anywhere in the world much more cheaply than in the UK.
"If staff continue without specialist technical or business skills
they will be taken out [by offshore outsourcing]," said Smith.