By Will Sturgeon, 15 February 2005 14:40
NEWS A skills crisis continues to grip the UK IT industry with highly qualified staff in increasing demand.
Two new reports highlight the breadth of this skills crisis one shows recruitment is slowing, while another attributes this to a lack of the right candidates.
The British Chambers of Commerce today claimed a lack of properly skilled workers and a paucity of new talent coming onto the job market is endemic across all skilled sectors in the UK, including IT, while the Recruitment & Employment Confederation today claimed the rate of growth in recruitment is slowing.
The findings placed side-by-side appear to suggest there are positions out there for the right candidate but appear to indicate that it is the right candidates, not the posts, which simply do not exist.
David Frost, Director General of the BCC, said today in London in a keynote address on skills: "Employers tell us all the time that they are frustrated that young people are not equipped with the right skills for the workplace. The system is simply not providing potential employees with the right skills for business and our figures show it has been failing for many years."
In fact the BCC reports a 50 per cent increase in the number of companies reporting problems finding individuals with the right skills for advertised positions.
"The skills of our workforce are already lagging behind many of our global competitors," added Frost. "The government must implement lasting reform in its proposals next week or our competitive edge could be seriously harmed. Businesses cannot wait any longer."
Next week the government will announce reform plans for secondary education including a greater emphasis on vocational training.
Take part in our seventh annual Skills Survey and have your say.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. MikeW
Contract rates are just about back to where they were in 2001.
Meanwhile, house prices have risen by 75% in the same period ...
So I doubt anyone's been laughing too hard if they were out of work during the crunch of Q4/2001 - 2003.
Maybe just breathing a sigh of relief.
2. John Bill
They said the same thing in the USA, it was really a pretext for opening the flood gates for lower paid Indians. There is no shortage of workers, companies just don't want to pay prevailing rates of pay. The end result, jobs that paid $100,000 now pay $35,000; that is if you can even find a job thanks to outsourcing.
3. anonymous
Perhaps, rather than ignoring them, they should look to the older age group who do possess the right skills and experience!
4. Frank Smith
Well us guys over 40 will just re-train as plumbers then, you dont automatically become un-employable at a certain age.
5. James Button
Another success story for the governments 'IR35' endeavours and easing the means to employ foreign workers made a large number of UK contractors, and specialists look to careers outside of IT.
Those contractors who stayed in the industry had great difficulty in maintaining their skills as a £8000 course not only means time not earning, but would have to be paid for out of their net pay ( after 40% tax, employer NI and Employee NI )
Due to lack of cash in the company in April/may (after paying all the company income to myself - as per IR35) I had to get rid of the company's trainees - no money - minimum pay requirements and it was illegal for the directors to try to keep them on.
So - the damage that IR35, combined with the industry's boom and bust mode is now coming home to roost - industry is suffering, business is going abroad, and the chancellors revenues will be hit for far more than the IR35 gain.
6. Terence Murphy
Some of the skill shortfall is in part made worse by the crude point score analysis carried out by the recruitment agencys. Coming to academia late, I have a post graduate Diploma (equivelent to a honours Degree it allows me now to study for a Masters) from a respectable university. But when written like that a number of the agencies would not put me forward as I had no degree.
I have also encountered ageism which is more to do with the agency than the employer
7. Dave Howe
I think part of the problem is the reliance on vendor certificates instead of skill and experience. I am finding it almost impossible to get an MS related job without an MCSE - even though I have experience in installing, configuring and maintaining MS operating systems from DOS upwards....