There is a saying, attributed to the Jesuits, that goes
"Give me a child of seven, and I will show you the man." It may be
facile to apply it tothe IT skills shortage, but there is a
truth here from infancy to adulthood,our education system is failing the
industry.
Maths and science are undernourished in schools, and it is
getting worse. While seven-year-olds in the UK may receive
rudimentary instruction, the majority are uninterested. As children
become adults, the state invests a lot of money in university
education. But again, maths and science lose out.
Of the 14% of university students who study these disciplines,
roughly 50% come from abroad.
The bottom line is that we do not have enough
scientifically-skilled people coming through the system.
The Vietnamese example
It gets worse. Graduates are likely to leave with knowledge that
will have to be unlearnt or enhanced using their first employer's
investment.
Meanwhile,
Vietnam is focusing on IT innovation. It is churning out some
of the world's leading IT thinkers. More than 80% of its students
are scientists. And the country is not alone: it is the same with
China, Japan, Taiwan, India
Without urgent action, the future is bleak. The UK business
environment is adaptive notice how we learned to fill our skills
gap in healthcare, hospitality, and building. And so too can our IT
needs be outsourced, or supplied by migrants. But do we want to
sacrifice our digital innovation forever? Do we want to become
increasingly parasitic in our use of IT and in the development of
new technologies?
We can recover, but not with gentle remedial action. There needs
to be a change of attitude at the very top. Ten years of
"education, education, education" has had little effect.
But it is too easy to blame just the government. Where
investment will be most swiftly beneficial is where big business
meets tertiary education. In partnership, universities and
enterprises can close ranks to work on the practical gaps. The
shared goal must be to give life to a generation of
innovation-hungry prodigies.
Business attitudes
On-the-job training in the UK keeps our IT workers going, but
there must be a shift to concentrate on tomorrow's staff. It
seems that business has abdicated its responsibility for
funding and energising cutting-edge university IT courses. With
sponsorship and inspiration, firms can show students that there are
rewarding careers in IT.
Conservatively, it will take 15 years to fill the skills gap. If
each decent-sized firm provided excellent on-the-job training
today, sponsored students next year and worked with a university on
designing a vocational course in five years, the UK would be back
on track.
With momentum at this level, the trickle-down effect could mean
that schoolchildren may reach up to a career in IT rather than
stumble upon it.
● Paul Smith is global managing director of outsourcing at
Harvey Nash
Good news on UK skills shortage >>
Vietnam facing economic boom on the back of IT >>
Council for
Industry and Higher Education and LogicaCMG report into graduate
shortage >>
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