Many IT directors would rather hire computing graduates
and spend money on training them than buy in experienced
contractors.
Despite the high cost of training, graduates offer better value
for money, and are more effective than temporary staff, said IT
directors at a recent roundtable discussion on skills and
staffing.
But IT directors often face an uphill struggle to persuade their
companies to invest in training and to support graduates, according
to IT directors at the event, organised by schools IT supplier
RM.
"Graduates are by far and away the best employees and
contractors are the worst. Graduates are very creative and they
want to get on," said Paul Spencer, head of development at software
developer Snowdrop Systems.
The cost of training a graduate is equivalent to a month's
salary for a contractor. But unlike contractors, who may be
unwilling to work in new ways, graduates are flexible and can take
the initiative, said Spencer.
However, it is important for employers to choose graduates from
the right university and the right course, said Billy McNeil,
development director at RM.
"If someone has done a good numerate degree they can pick up IT
very quickly. The worst ones have wishy-washy degrees. They can
recite verbatim how to do an IT strategy for a multinational, but
they don't know anything about programming," he said.
Spencer said that the quality of graduates varied dramatically
according to the university.
"The variation is incredible. I have had graduates who don't
know anything about databases. We have a large number of graduates
that say they have CML on their CV, but when we ask them, they
can't do a simple test," he said.
Some employers felt they were losing out on talent, however,
because they did not have the resources to take on graduates and
train them.
"I would like to get people out of college and invest the time
to develop them. I am up for that. We are losing out on a whole
opportunity," said John Durham, head of IT at Innocent Drinks.
Abbie Akinfenwa, business systems manager at Prêt a Manger, said
her options were also limited because her firm did not have the
infrastructure in place to train graduates.
"It just does not wash to say 'I am going to get a graduate
trained'," she said.
The decline in the number of undergraduates choosing to study IT
and technology-related degrees at university has fallen, which has
alarmed the heads of IT.
According to research by E-skills UK, the number of students
that chose to study IT-related courses dropped by 43% between 2001
and 2006, and dropped by 14% in 2006 alone.
Maddie Smith, careers consultant at the University of
Manchester, said that good students were being put off IT courses
because of the perception that IT jobs are being offshored.
"Offshoring is a subject that a lot of students bring up. There
is a perception that there are no jobs," she said.
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