A new MA, developed in conjunction with employers, and
which organisers hope will fill the training gap left by years
ofIT outsourcing, will be launched in
September.
The IT sector skills council
E-skills argues there is a gap to fill in the IT career ladder
because so many lower-level jobs have been outsourced to countries
such as India and China. E-skills hopes the MA will provide the
skills these jobs used to.
Chief executive, Karen Price, said, "We have lost the first two
rungs of the career ladder. This MA is a collective effort by
employers to address that initial development of people.
"Outsourcing means the focus in the UK is at the higher end. But
the difficulty is if the core programming is all in India, how do
you get the core development skills?"
A number of IT and telecoms employers have been involved in
developing the degree, which will start running in September but
has not yet been named. It will consist of 12 modules, taking
around two years to complete on a part-time basis, and some
training already being undertaken by employers may be accredited to
count towards a module if the right skills are being covered. The
price of six modules will be around £7,000.
BT is one company planning to place students on the course.
Director of education, Pat Hughes, said he expects the course to be
beneficial for new employees.
"It is adding the wider business skills, the kind of thing
undergraduates tend not to get in their undergraduate programme. It
is a way of accelerating people through to a higher level of
professional competence."
Price said she hopes the new degree will both meet a need for
better organised lower-level training, and stimulate interest among
undergraduates in an IT career.
"I am hoping it will improve the attractiveness of an IT career.
Young people look towards some of the more structured professions,
and I am hoping this will establish more structure."