Employers prefer to hire experienced IT professionals
rather than to recruit and train IT graduates, a survey of 1,000
organisations by E-Skills UK has revealed.
Sixty per cent of employers surveyed said they prefer to employ
experienced IT professionals, compared to 19% who prefer to hire
graduates and postgraduates.
Thirty eight per cent of organisations said they plan to recruit
staff with between 18 and 36 months' experience, 45% aim to hire
staff with three to five years' experience, and 95% said they look
to hire staff with more than five years' experience.
Despite their preference for experienced staff, the
organisations surveyed reported that the skills of graduates were
more likely to fit the organisation's needs than the skills of the
more experienced staff they recruited.
Some 14% of organisations said the skills match of the
experienced IT professionals recruited only moderately fitted the
needs of the organisation, and that further skills development
would be needed.
However, overall, organisations rated the technical skills of
their IT staff at 88 on a scale of one to 100. The "soft" skills of
IT staff were also rated highly, at 86.
Just 51% of companies said they would be likely to offer
training to IT staff to reduce their skills gaps, the survey
found.
Those organisations least likely to offer training were the most
likely to have identified skills gaps in their IT departments as
having a serious effect on their business.
About 20% of organisations had attempted to recruit IT staff
during the third quarter of 2004. Medium-sized companies were most
likely to take on IT staff, followed by large and small
organisations.
Of those looking to take on new staff over the first quarter of
2005, 10% predicted that they would have difficulty recruiting
staff with the required skills, knowledge and experience needed by
their business.