Re-skilling the existing workforce is crucial if the UK
is to avoid anIT recruitment
crisis,E-Skills UKwarned last
week.
Although potential workers in the "pipeline" of school and
university are important, most of the IT staff that the UK economy
will be relying on in 2020 are already working now, said Karen
Price, chief executive at the IT sector skills council.
In an interview with Computer Weekly, Price said the importance
of constantly improving the skills of the current workforce was
paramount if the UK was to meet the challenges of the coming years
and remain competitive in the face of stiff competition from
overseas.
"How we re-skill the existing workforce is a fascinating
question," she said. "By 2020, the people who are in the workforce
now will make up 70% of the working population.
"The ageing population in Britain means we are running out of
young people, so an emphasis on the 70% that are already working is
really important."
The Leitch Review, published last year, set out ambitious goals
for skills levels in the UK in 2020. It recommended that
"economically valuable skills" be delivered through a more
demand-led approach, with the employer's voice and engagement
strengthened.
It also set out requirements for employers to increase
investment in higher-level training. One target was for 40% of
adults to be skilled to graduate level and above by 2020.
Price said investment in IT training was already good, with the
challenges being to refocus and increase training and achievement
in "softer", non-technical skills.
"As a sector, we are always in the top three in terms of spend
per employee on training," she said. "The difficulty we have is the
realisation that there is a complete shift to be made in the skills
we have now and the skills we need.
"Offshoring is highlighting the need for management skills,
because it requires the ability to manage remotely and on global
terms."
Changes are also occurring in the way that young IT
professionals are trained. The traditional bottom rungs of the
skills ladder are disappearing, making it more difficult for new
entrants to the industry.
"Many of the traditional entry-level jobs are being outsourced
or offshored. So there is a need for employers to collaborate more,
including inter-company placements for trainees," said Price.
One idea that E-Skills UK hopes will help fend off a skills
crisis is Procom, its "light-touch" common framework to help
articulate what skills an employee has.
Price said, "Procom will bring about a common language
consistency to help us understand what people can actually do.
"It won't be rigid like the accountancy or engineering
frameworks, because this is a hugely fast moving sector. But it
will help employers better understand an individual's competence,
and it will provide a framework for them to work from in terms of
learning opportunities and skills programmes.
"Everyone needs to realise that the need for training and
development is going to be top of people's agenda."