Employers are finding it increasingly difficult to fill
graduate jobs as theshortage of young people taking IT-related
degreesbegins to make itself
felt.
The number of people studying computing at university has been
falling steadily for the past few years, and the lack of graduates
has started to cause
recruitment problems for businesses.
In response, some employers have resorted to
outsourcing and offshoring lower-level jobs, and others have
competed for scarce recruits by offering higher salaries.
Firms such as LogicaCMG have started to take on non-IT graduates
and A-level students, training them up themselves in the skills
they need.
Large employers such as British Airways and Google report no
problems with getting the people they need, but companies without
their high profile are starting to struggle, professional bodies
have warned.
The British Computer Society said the drop off in the number of
IT graduates coming out of universities could be "very damaging"
for smaller businesses, and it has urged as many organisations as
possible to take an interest in education.
Anne De Roeck, chair of the Council of Professors and Heads of
Computing, said, "The IT sector has about 120,000 new jobs a year
and there are just not that many people coming out of the education
sector.
"It is going to be difficult to address this shortage. Taking on
A-level students is just one example of how a big employer can
compete, but it does not solve the problem for the large number of
small to medium firms which characterise the IT sector.
"The question remains of how small firms are going to afford the
high level of re-skilling that is necessary. The large companies
have more resources and are better placed to attract the few
graduates that are there."
De Roeck said there were generally two options open to firms who
cannot afford to train their own IT staff. "Outsourcing or
offshoring is a possibility, because these skills can be acquired
overseas, and it can be more cost-effective to do this. Another
option is to
import these skills from abroad," she said.
De Roeck believes the government may have to step in to help
close the gap between the demand for qualified people and the
decline in new IT graduates.
Ann Swain, chief executive of the Association of Technology
Staffing Companies, said employers must share some of the blame for
the shortages.
"There has been a real shortage of entry-level jobs because so
much has been outsourced and offshored. There have been fewer jobs
to come into, and that affects how many people want to work in
IT.
"In addition, there has been a low level of training for the
past five or six years, so the biggest shortage now is of people
with three or four years' experience."
The answer, she said, lies with the employers. "A number of big
employers need to group together and spend money on graduates being
trained. Unless that happens, the situation is going to get
worse."
Jeremy Beale, head of e-business at the Confederation of British
Industry, said, "Large employers are already doing quite a lot, and
they are suffering as well as the SMEs.
"The problem is the lack of graduates with the right skills -
where the IT degree has a business element to it. The new
E-Skills IT and business degree is available in a few
universities, but there needs to be more."
IT training and the skills crisis: the expert view >>