Companies will have to commit to skills training in
return for winning government-funded IT contracts, skills secretary
John Denham announced today.
The move aims to tackle
significant shortages of people with the right skills in
government. It will also discourage IT suppliers from cutting back
on training during the recession.
"We have to make every taxpayer's pound work as hard as we can.
Wherever possible government spending should not just provide good
public services, it should also ensure young people are trained in
the skills we need for the future."
"A failure to train now will mean that, when the economy begins
to grow again, we will not have the skilled workers we need to
seize those opportunities that growth presents," he said.
The government-funded
Sector Skills
Council for IT, e-skills UK, predicts the IT industry will need
around 131,000 people each year for the next 10 years and that most
of these will be graduates.
The government spends nearly £14bn a year on procuring IT
services. Denham said he wants to make sure this spend contributes
to improving the skills base of the IT workforce. He says the IT
sector has significant potential for providing the jobs of the
future and economic growth.
"The IT industry is one of the industries which is critical to
the future of the British economy and its ability to survive and
thrive post-recession. It's vitally important that British business
has IT skills to draw on at all levels," he said.
Denham met the government's lead CIO John Suffolk at a summit
today to discuss how government and industry can work together to
promote investment in skills in the IT sector through
procurement.
The government's CIOs have committed all government departments
and agencies to look at "requiring successful contractors to have
in place a development plan for their workforce".
Denham's department says that the IT industry "faces challenges,
not least finding the right people with the right skills to enable
us to compete internationally".
UK digital industries alone produce an annual gross value added
of around £86bn, 10.9% of the UK total, and have the potential to
contribute a further £35bn over the next five to seven years.
Denham said: "In tough economic times like these, there is a
danger that employers will reduce their investment in the skills of
their employees as they look to cut costs. But research shows that
companies who don't train are 2.5 times more likely to fail than
those who do.
Today's summit at the Department for Innovation, Universities
and Skills was attended by some top names in IT including:
- John Suffolk, government CIO
- Peter Court, CIO at DIUS
- Tony Mather, CIO at Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- Paul Jones, NHS Chief Technology Officer
- Dean James, COO at the Department for Work and Pensions
- Michael Leach, IT Transformation Director at the Ministry of
Justice
- Paul Coby, Chief Information Officer of British Airways
Suppliers and other CIOs who attended included:
- Bill Thomas, Senior Vice-President of EMEA for EDS
- Julian David, Vice-President of IBM's Public Sector Business
for the UK and South Africa
- David Thomlinson, Senior Managing Director for Accenture's
Global Strategy and Operations
- Andy Green, Chief Executive Officer at Logica
- Mark Bounds, Senior Vice-President and Managing Director of
government and Health at Atos Origin
- Edwina McDowall, Director of Customer Supply Chain, Cable
& Wireless.
Read more:
Government outsources to overcome skills shortages says John
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Only a third of government IT projects succeed >>