Employers will find it no harder to get the IT skills they need
when
new immigration rules come into force in November, despite IT
skills not being included on a new list of "shortage skills", say
immigration lawyers and industry bodies.
"IT skills are not on the current list either," points out James
Dunlop, an immigration lawyer and partner with immigration services
consultancy Workpermit.com, "so the same people who qualified
before will still qualify."
Philip Virgo, a strategic advisor to the Institute for
Management of Information Systems, argues that any "shortages"
being experienced by employers are the result of their failure to
cross-train existing staff or candidates who meet the EU residency
requirements, not over-restrictive immigration laws.
"There are a lot of British people who are unable to get jobs in
the industry because companies have being unwilling to cross-train
them to do tasks they are perfectly capable of doing," he says.
"Instead, they have sought to hire new, cheap recruits from
overseas, many of whom have turned out not to have the skills
claimed, let alone the practical experience."
Dunlop says the main impact of the new points-based rules system
will be to tighten up on procedures, with companies wishing to
bring in non-EU workers having to apply for a licence in advance.
"There will be a lot more checking up on companies initially, there
will be periodic audits checking that staff are doing the job they
were brought in for, and if they leave the company, the employer
will have to notify the immigration authorities speedily. Most
large companies are already doing this smaller companies may have
to beef up their reporting to meet the deadlines."
Under the new rules, skilled workers coming to the UK from
outside the European Union must achieve a minimum points threshold
before they are allowed to work in the UK. Workers with skills on
the list are allocated more points than those not on the list for
criteria relating to the candidate's skills and the job being
offered.
However, says Peter Skyte, a national officer with union Unite,
"If a company is unable to fulfil a vacancy and can genuinely
demonstrate that they have advertised and cannot attract an EU
national, they can still bring people in from overseas provided
they meet the overall criteria for the relevant number of
points."
In fact, any offer for a job paying over £24,000 will provide a
candidate with sufficient points. Candidates must also demonstrate
competency in English and that they have enough money to support
themselves in the first month.
Intra-company transfers, which Skyte says account for around 60%
of IT staff entering the UK from outside the EEA, are also not
significantly affected by the rule change.
Ann Swain, chief executive of the Association of Technology
Staffing Companies (ATSCo), which was involved in helping draw up
the list for the Home Office's Borders Agency, said that "a large
number of those in-house transfers are from software companies who
set up here and bring over cheap labour, and it will still be very
easy for them to bring over those people without advertising the
skillset in the UK first."