Globalisation - oft maligned and ill
understood- is creating a new and evolving
international division of labour. Western governments and companies
are beginning to adapt to this, and to develop strategies that are
in long-term alignment with it.
In the UK,
it has become as difficult for would-be IT professionals to get
on the first rungs of the career ladder as it is for first-time
buyers to get on the property ladder. For example, from 2005 to
2007, the number of job vacancies advertised for junior contract IT
staff fell by nearly 10%, as programming jobs were transferred
overseas.
And so a new masters degree, developed in conjunction with
employers, is being launched to fill the gap that offshoring has
created.
Once those basic trade skills have been acquired, however,
globalisation means the emphasis has to shift to business skills,
such as supplier relationship management, commercial awareness, and
modes of (cross-cultural) team communication.
As we report from
Cisco Networkers 2008, network managers are increasingly being
called upon to develop advanced - often international - networks
that require advanced project management skills.
And there is a need to manage sensitively a Western/Asian
cultural divide. In the case of travel company Amadeus, although
Japanese and Chinese engineers have proved as clever as their
Western counterparts, the travel distribution company has found
that they need to be managed very differently.
Globalisation is often seen as a threat to British IT jobs and
an insidious destroyer of our technical skills base. But there is
no point in wrapping ourselves in the Union Jack. There are
opportunities as well as challenges here and there are training
courses emerging to help entry level IT professionals overcome
skills shortcomings and develop the more sophisticated skills that
are with the swim of the global tide.