Levels of students applying to study computer science
have halved in five years, according to the “Developing the Future”
report, which examines the state of the UK software development
industry.
Even without this dramatic tumble in graduate numbers, there
still wouldn’t be enough software developer talent to go round.
The study, conducted by Lancaster University Management School,
Microsoft and the British Computer Society, estimates that the UK
needs to produce about 150,000 new IT graduates each year: instead
it is producing fewer than 20,000. This shortfall will widen as the
first generation of software developers reaches retirement.
Asia and Eastern Europe, which are churning out hundreds of
thousands of graduates with relevant skills every year, will
benefit from this deficit as 40,000 software jobs are moving
offshore every year.
The report warns that the software industry risks following the
downward path of the UK manufacturing industry.
“Manufacturing disappeared offshore and it took us five years to
realise it. With software it is the reverse. There is a lot of work
around but we are already talking as if it is gone. It hasn’t! We
really are risking talking young people out of moving into the IT
profession,” warns Karen Price, chief executive of e-skills UK in
the report.
Industry, academia and government must pool resources and
encourage more people to study computer science, warns the report,
if the UK is to compete globally.