A goverment-backed report out today has highlighted key
areas of IT skills the UK must address to provide askilled workforce.
The report from the Department of Trade and Industry-backed
group, The Information Age Partnership’s i2010 Working Group, said
big changes were needed to protect the
future of the UK's IT industry.
Speaking at a conference at the Department of Trade and Industry
today Industry and the Regions minister Margaret Hodge said, “We
have a competitive edge but we have to work doubly hard to maintain
our skills [lead] from low cost economies.”
She said it was important for industry to work with schools to
help drive an employer-driven curriculum. Among the challenges
facing the UK, as it strives to become a knowledge economy, is a
lack of ICT skills.
Just as IT jobs are currently being moved abroad to lower cost
economies, car manufacturing in the 1970s was undergoing a similar
process, as the UK lost its car manufacturing industry, said Mike
Rodd, director of the learned society at the BCS. Rodd said, “There
were more cars manufactured in the UK last year than ever before,”
as the UK is now regarded as a centre of excellence for automotive
electronics. He believes IT has a similar potential, in spite of
the current trend to
offshore software development.
Rodd said, “We have to seize the initiative and make the UK a
centre of excellence.”
The report titled “Ensuring the right conditions for an innovative,
inclusive and competitive UK knowledge economy” has 20
recommendations.
The report urges government, academia and commerce to stimulate
innovation through investment in research. Microsoft was one of the
companies that worked on the report and its UK managing director,
Gordon Fraser, said, “Developing a knowledge economy is critical to
the success of Britain.” He urged
businesses, schools and
universities to encourage youngsters to develop
computer science and mathematics skills, which are heavily used
in cutting-edge IT such as
games-programming.
IT skills shortage at two-year low >>
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