The number of vacant hard-to-fill jobs in the IT sector
rose sharply at the end of last year, according to thelatest study from E-skills UK. The
study also found that candidates lack business skills and technical
expertise.
The proportion of companies finding it hard to fill IT posts
increased from 6% to 16% between the third and fourth quarters of
last year, according to the research from E-Skills, the
public-private partnership established to help tackle the
IT skills shortage in the UK.
E-Skills said systems development and programming were the most
commonly cited areas that were hard to fill during the third
quarter of last year. Provisional results from the fourth quarter
of 2006 showed employers were also concerned about the availability
of suitable candidates for software engineering, technical support
and systems design posts.
The report suggests that
employers are still finding it hard to hire IT staff with business
and other non-technical skills. Those who reported gaps in the
skills of their IT staff were more likely to have had issues with
their non-technical skills than their technical abilities.
Some 27% of employers rated levels of business acumen among IT
professionals as being poor or very poor. Other non-technical
skills were also rated as being very poor by 27%."Business and
other non-technical skills are becoming increasingly important for
IT professionals," said Tilly Travers, an E-skills UK
spokeswoman.
"The growing volume of IT professional roles in the UK is becoming
focused on high-skill, customer-facing areas such as project
management, business analysis and systems design. This requires a
sophisticated set of skills and understanding; one that encompasses
business, communication, team working and project management
skills, as well as in-depth and up-to-date technical
knowledge."
Thirty-three per cent of employers found that new IT staff also
appeared to lack
business skills and other non-technical skills, according to
the E-skills study. In terms of interpersonal skills, new starters
in IT were considered below par compared with existing staff.
Businesses were failing to develop communications and other
business skills in IT staff, said Anne Swain, chief executive of
Atsco, a group representing IT
recruitment companies.
"Most businesses do not train for communications. Universities and
colleges do not even teach the communication skills required by
business, a practice that is commonplace in the US."
Swain advised IT professionals to read management coaching books to
help gain these skills. It was also worth IT staff asking if they
can spend time working in a business unit to improve non-technical
skills, she said.
Tilly said employers and individuals should work together to
identify skills needs and address these through appropriate
training. E-skills was helping to address this with a new
IT Professional Competency Model, she said.
The E-skills study also found that the percentage of IT vacancies
classed as "replacement" positions - meaning those arising because
of staff departures, retirement, etc - rose during the third
quarter of 2006 to 26% of advertised jobs.
However, some evidence for buoyancy in the IT jobs market comes
from the fact that the number of new positions was still more than
twice the number of replacement jobs, whereas a year ago these
figures were almost equal.
Evidence of a more recent upturn was confirmed by
research from Computer Weekly and SSL last month, which
revealed that the number of advertised jobs rose by 5% during the
previous six months to 122,987, the highest level for five
years.
Earlier this month,
research from Kew Associates showed that retail was one of the
leading sectors in IT growth, along with business services, which
includes accountancy and legal firms.
E-Skills UK >>
Association of Technology
Staffing Companies (Atsco) >>
Information on E-skills Procom >>
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Gartner >>
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IT graduates face tough search for jobs >>
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