By Sylvia Carr, 4 February 2005 17:05
NEWS Though the IT job market has picked up in the last year and now favours candidates, the UK workforce is heading for a crisis - which companies must address now.
Fewer women and young people are choosing careers in IT than even three years ago while at the same time the average age of workers is rising.
Bill Grubbs, COO of IT recruitment firm Spring Group, told silicon.com the result will be "huge staff shortages" in five to 10 years' time.
"The fact is there will be fewer workers and fewer skilled workers," he said.
Offshoring and outsourcing should be considered as remedies, according to Grubbs.
"[Businesses] need to set aside the emotion related to offshoring and outsourcing and bring all options to the table in order to be able to compete in the global marketplace," he said.
Promising locations for IT talent include Eastern Europe and soon China, said Grubb, once more Chinese people learn English so the language barrier is overcome.
Other options for dealing with the skills shortage include luring and retaining IT staff with "open" policies such as flexible hours and the ability to work from home, as work-life balance is becoming more important to people, said Grubbs.
The IT industry as a whole would also do well to work on an image change that would help attract young people and women.
One way to do this, according to Grubbs, would be to promote the growing importance of business skills in IT.
IT is not just for hardcore techies, anymore. "Now IT staff wear suits and need to understand business issues as much as technical issues," he said.
Comments
There are 18 comments. Join the discussion
1. Alex
I have very little sympathy for companies who laid off large numbers of workers after 9/11 and spent the last three years ignoring IT graduates and anyone over the age of 40.
If British business need skills, someone needs to give young people training and experience whilst retraining older staff. That hasn't happened, which is why IT related degree courses intakes have fallen. They saw there weren't any jobs for them when they came out, so they voted with their feet and became plumbers.
So now after 3 years of famine, most discarded IT people have retrained or found a nice secure niche so they can feed their families.
Suddenly there is a dearth of people trained in the latest technologies and a cry of we must open the floodgates of visa permits again.
Why do you think the offshorers have thousands of trained staff available at the drop of a hat?
Well they have spent the last 3 years spending their tax free profits, made from offshoring, on training as many good people as they can get their hands on.
If they could see the potential why didn't British firms? Get training staff now, you will reap the benefits in a very short space of time.
Remember there is no such thing as bad soldiers, just bad officers.
2. anonymous
If the situation in the UK is anything like it is in the US (you be the judge) a young person would now have to be a suicidal, masochistic idiot to spend the time, effort, and money to train for an IT career. They might never find a job, and will certainly not earn enough to raise a family in any degree of comfort and stability. They'd better like roller coasters because their income will ride one, and end up on the ground where they started, likewise. Why pursue a career that is already being crated up for shipment you-know-where?
3. Jamie Bishop
I left the UK because my employer could import staff from India at less than 10% of my salary.
It's possible that's why so many skilled people left the UK. Isn't it ironic that the solution is to replace those cheap imports with staff emplyed offshore?
I now work for the Spanish Health Authority and get paid a reasonably high salary for the position. Perhaps the fact that Spain doesn't overspend on nuclear weapons like the UK does explains why they can afford to look after their people.
Still, having the ability to wipe out entire cities with cruise missiles has to have precedence over peoples health, wealth and happiness hasn't it?
Work in the UK? No way, you can keep it.
4. Kevin Karper
Offshoring is creating the problem, not solving it. Why would our talented youngsters enter a work-market where the wage levels are determined by the lowest Asian bidder ? IT used to attract the brightest technicians because it was a good career, now programming etc. can be done anywhere in the World.
5. anonymous
I am sorry but he needs to come out of his Ivory Tower and look at the real world.
I have strong business skills, good but slightly out of date technical skills and an excellent record for delivering yet Spring never consider me.
Could it be that they are too busy focusing on the wrong thing?
Whilst IT has been good to me, in the past, I would never recommend it as a career now. A question frequently asked of me when I give guest lectures on the University circuit.
6. anonymous
Whislt many IT personnel have often been their own worst enemies forcing square technical solutions into round business holes they were in the minority.
Bill Grubbs has fallen for a popular myth which shows he does not really understand the IT industry.
I have been in IT for 30+ years, have always worn a suit and have always considered business drivers before technical drivers and I am certainly not alone in doing that!
7. Ian Baldwin
Off-shore working may be the quick, cheap and easy 'management' solution to this but does not address the long term problem.
IT needs quality people that understand business requirements not just how to program and from my perspective such people exist in the UK. It's just the case that British management doesn't want to pay the correct price. Hence no incentive to join IT in Britain and a rise in off-shore contracts.
But remember the addage.... if you get enough monkeys you'll finally end up with the works of Sshakesphere ... problem is that for that 1 good result there are millions of garbage results....
Do you really want to risk your business ? I say... Come on UK management, make better use of the Quality in the UK and at the correct rate.
8. Clifton Jones
Having to wear a suit makes the job more attractive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is this an early April fool or something?
9. anonymous
Why is it that it is always the IT Recruitment companies that advocate offshoring and outsourcing. Is this possibly because UK workers have got wise to the high margins applied to their rates and in recent years have refused to allow "IT Recruiters" to get away with it.
Are there higher margins to be earned by recruiting from overseas?
We continually hear quotes such as "IT is not core business" and therefore to reduce costs we should be outsourcing or recruiting cheaper staff. IT may not be core business, but in todays workplace it is not only Core to the business but fundamentaly underpins all business process and as such should not only be prepared to recruit the best, but in the interest of continuity should be prepared to retain and retrain the best.
I full agree with the previous comment that offshoring and outsourcing are what is causing the problem. Time we got real and put IT firmly where it belongs: In House, In the Boardroom and In Touch with the Business.
10. Graham
I can't help thinking that many recruitment companies have a parasitic role to play when it comes to offshoring because for a not so small fee they will happily look for individuals in far off lands to replace loyal staff over here (well loyalty is so last year.)
I know! if WE need to get a well paid jobS in IT, why don't we call one of those highly proffesional IT recruitment companies Mombai!(India)
Its good for the companies that need IT sfaff because their commissions are only one tenth of the commissions charged by some of the money grabbing companies that operate out of the UK.
It's also good for the employees because they become less expensive to hire and may not get their backsides
fired as soon as coporate belts are tightened!
Recruiters take note, the door swings both ways in the free market, its just a matter of time...
11. Peter Bean
Another option would be to remove the "age" barrier that has beset the IT industry. There are many in the "sunset" of their working lives that have much to offer but are rejected because they have had the misfortune to have been born too early.
12. Carl Maycock
What is it with people and outsourcing ?
We live and operate in a free-market and compete against other companies and countries in that market. If a company makes a decision to outsource its IT infrastructure then generally it will be to either reduce costs or to restructure the way the company works. Why do we assume that a company should stay loyal to the nationality of its employees ? Its a global economy we operate in so why should the skills in a business be localised ? If a company can source skills elsewhere at a lower cost then of course they will consider outsourcing. After all a company exists to make money not to create a patriotic workforce. If my own job was outsourced I would have to see it as a natural consequence of an open and free market. How else can a company compete ?
13. anonymous
The answer to the previous question is simply one word:
globalisation.
Why is manufacturing in the UK on the decline?, because UK workers demand higher wages and firms demand higher profits. So they move production to countries where labour costs are cheap e.g. Czech Republic, Asia etc.
The thing to bear in mind is that in those countries the wages paid are comparable given their cost of living and their society. I'm not trying to justify it but that's how it is.
If you're considering a career in IT then don't bother because there aren't any.
If you are working in IT and are over 30 (like me) then perhaps its time to consider a career change.
Right now there is a major shortage of skilled trades people, I've heard of IT people, Stockbrokers etc., ditching their jobs and going into one of the many trades i.e. plumbing, electricians, plasterers etc. That's where the real money is these days!
14. Alex
Well Carl, thats the problem, your job probably will be just made redundant.
If you offshore call centres,IT, accountancy,manufacturing,back office processing etc what's left?
Why business analysts,sales & Directors. Then of course the Directors realise there is no - one left to sell to and as all the work is done offshore there is nothing left to analyse. They move to a tax haven and commute once a month to their facility in Hydrabaad.
Even if there is someone left to sell to unless you speak Hindi or Mandarin you won't be able to integrate with the team.
If India or China get too expensive then the Directors will move on to the next third world country like locusts. That's unmanaged Globalisation, unbridled capitalism is just as bad as unbridled communism.
We are training our competitors they are hungry for success(one meal away from starvation hungry) are you willing to give up your BMW to compete?
Offshoring and visa inshoring are keeping wages artificially low to support Bush & Blair's economic miracles. These Jobless recoveries are a very dangerous thing.
15. Geoff Cox
Quite apart from finding the 'tone' of some remarks about offshoring offensive, this is now a mature industry. It has moved a long way from the constant double digit growth, generous salaries, company cars for everyone plus annual pay rises all round days. At the same time companies have not helped themselves with their 'ageist' policies, by scrimping on training and treating employees as resources and showing zero loyalty to them when times get tough. Quite apart from the increasing pressures to deliver whilst cutting costs. Quite simply the world has moved on, deal with it. After 25 years in IT I'll be relieved to get out, and I don't know anyone of my age who would recommend it as a career any more.
16. Roger P Murphy
"IT Crisis"
Oh no!!!
Well image-conscious, ageist Employer
what are you going to do about it???
Ship off more jobs abroad to some slave economy, (and with less emocratic accountability).
Tell you what "IT companies" if you want, give me some training and the promise of a job at the end and I would be only too happy to work for you.
There are thousands of unemployed people in the UK who would love to work in IT (myself included).
Whats stopping them? simple age discrimination and a lack of investment in people out of work.
(PS don't believe what Blair's party tells you about falling unemployment)
17. Anil Srikantiah
I dont believe in this talk that there are plenty of skills available in India and China. I am in Software and know that Software or IT development requires people with creative skills . There might be lots and lots of qualified people but it does not matter unless they are creative and this skills comes by birth . I feel that the IT industry will becaome ven more globalised and will look at the whole world for skills. It is just like the Advertising or the Film industry , a place only for creative people.
18. James Mcardil
There are lots of people in UK, having average skills in IT but excellent @ bullshit and do basically f*** all most of the day and get paid, that's why there is IT skills shortage here. Moreover nobody is willing to work over time when required by the business if it is unpaid. Nobody will arrive at work before 8:30am in the morning then immediately coffee break to overcome the last night alcohol hangover, wasting 15mnts company time + spending time on perosnal telephone calls + emails, long lunch breaks, frequent tea/coffee breaks, at least 30mnts before they finish the day they can't concentrate at work, this is the real story @ office at all company expense. That's why there is crisis for IT. There are more clever, talented, highly qualified, dedicated, committed and hardworking professionals who are working hard to get the things done and to meet the high expectations of clients are available in countries like in India and China. There is no way the IT will survive for long here as long as this kind of working environment and work culture is practiced, today's customer demands won't be met.
Thanks
James Mcardil