Lockheed
Martin UKis to hire up to 100IT graduatesthis year as the number
of projects requiring professional skills rises.
The company has seen an increase in the number of graduates it
takes in year on year and in 2006 the number of graduates it hired
climbed by 36%.
"In the UK as a whole, more than half of the UK's 150,000 IT
staff are over 50 and are approaching retirement age. We are
building a talent pipeline to ensure that we have staff with the
right IT skills in place for the future," said Cheryl Baron,
Recruitment and Diversity programme manager at Lockheed Martin.
The UK division of Lockheed Martin does not focus on
manufacturing but rather on software engineering and network
development.
Baron said that recruiting employees with IT degrees gave the
company confidence in their technical skills. The company is keen
to recruit graduates with software engineering, programming and
networking skills. Competencies such as Java,
C++, Oracle and Weblogic were seen as desirable. Experience in
project management also counted when interviewing candidates.
Lockheed Martin said that developing an IT student's
appreciation of real world projects and applications was also
important. It recently sponsored Cranfield University with funding
worth a total of £50,000 for its research department.
Baron said that the approach of working in partnership with
universities had led to students being placed with Lockheed Martin
after finishing their degree, with the added bonus of them having
developed specific technical skills required by the job.