By Natasha Lomas, 18 September 2006 16:00
NEWS
Mind the IT skills gap? Not according to technology users voting in a silicon.com poll, the majority of whom firmly believe it's unnecessary for overseas workers to be drafted into service here.
More than three-quarters - a resounding 77 per cent - of respondents to the reader poll said they don't believe the UK needs to bring in skilled IT workers from overseas to fill posts. Just over a fifth (23 per cent) disagreed, indicating they do believe foreign workers are a necessary addition.
The majority view is at odds with sentiments recently expressed by senior industry executives - and by the silicon.com CIO Jury IT user panel which this week voted by a ratio of seven to five that location is a consideration often put on the back burner when it comes to sourcing resources.
In July BA's CIO Paul Coby warned the UK is facing a serious IT skills crisis which he said could cripple businesses' ability to compete. Speaking at the time he said: "We're all finding it's tough to find top-grade staff."
The CEO of SAS, Jim Goodnight, also recently spoke out on the subject. Back in June, Goodnight called for the UK and US governments to open their borders to skilled overseas IT workers as a means of fostering innovation and maintaining competitive edge, adding that the IT industry is "screaming" for changes to immigration laws.
However reader comments responding to that story expressed doubt on the existence of a skills gap in the UK.
Philip Virgo, a strategic advisor to the Institute for the Management of Information Systems, cast doubt on the existence of a skills shortage - saying the problem is instead a lack of "opportunity/incentive to maintain, upgrade and update" the skills of the existing IT workforce.
Another reader - a software manager from Milton Keynes - also took a sceptical view of the skills gap. He cited "prejudice" against older workers and a demand for young graduates as contributing to staff shortages rather than a lack of available experience, adding that "UK companies have a poor record of supporting vocational training of their employees".
The poll was based on the responses of 412 silicon.com readers.
Comments
There are 8 comments. Join the discussion
1. Brian Hughes
I was a computer professional for over 20 years. About 4 years ago I noticed a lack of available interviews which I can only put down to my age, then 51. I have sinced changed carreres but have kept in touch with friends in the trade. They are also now finding it more dificult as they approach the magic age of 50.
Skills gap ? created by the bosses I believe so that they can employ cheaper younger overseas workers.
2. Jeremy Robinson
With many of my colleagues, I recently took voluntary redundancy. We are nearly all available to work in the UK.
Why are we redundant to our former employer?
The reasons are that our global employer wanted to reduce headcount in Europe and employ cheaper staff from India and elsewhere.
Also my division had more experienced and more highly skilled staff than others who had been taken on in an outsource deal, so again the aim was payroll reduction.
The short term cost reduction approach is the simplistic management approach.
So CIOs who ask for IT immigrants are really asking for cheaper staff to reduce their costs and improve their profits. Perhaps we, the over 50s IT staff, need protection as an endangered species.
3. Jeremy Drew
I have worked in IT for 30 years, until 2002 when it became impossible to get work - too old!
My experience covers all aspects of IT and I have experience of setting up and running businesses, but getting work in the UK, well, just impossible. So, no skills shortage, just short sighted management!
4. anonymous
If by skills gap what is actually meant it is "cheap as possible whilst highly skilled employee" - then I guess there is going to be a bit of a gap. When houses in the UK cost what they do in rural india, then maybe the salaries could be dropped a little...
5. Roger Huffadine
I agree with the opinion that the prejudice against older workers is causing the skill gap. There is also the "fear of employing someone who knows a hell of a lot more than their manager" syndrome which is inhibiting the growth of many companies and keeping exceptionally experienced older staff in jobs like mine :)) and to be truthful - having taken early retirement - I quite like someone else being at the sharp end. One further problem is that IT skills are difficult to teach in schools because of the mandated curriculum and the mandated social inclusion resulting in too little time teaching IT and disruptive pupils in every classroom for every lesson. If a skills gap doesn't exist now then it will in the next 10 years because government policies are manufacturing a skill gap - god knows why but I'm sure they have a reason:((
6. Stuart Fawcett
IT is a service with a cost, the job of the senior industry executives is to deliver that service for a lower cost. As many service industries solution providers looking for ways to hire lots of staff on demand and churn them retaining just the few exceptional stars through into the start of the next cycle. With the increase in out sourcing and application hosting this employment need profile will grow, as will building increasingly core system components in the cheapest countries available. The need for bursts of highly skilled effort will further reduce the available pool of experienced senior IT staff. Training will increase somewhat to meet this need, however much of this training will occur in the cheaper countries, ultimately increasing the need for foreign workers.
The remaining IT workers will fall into Niche markets and small local businesses where continuity and physical presence are required.
So without government incentives to train local workers and ensure the larger projects are built with key UK workers, we will inevitably see the IT market shrink. Obviously this is similar to the loss of large scale manufacturing.
In summary, today as a Non CIO, I can best implement my simple change requirements with local staff; but tomorrow, as a CIO, I need bigger change that cannot be done with reliance on UK staff.
7. Rob
i moved out here to malaysia 2 years ago and come across many people who boast of having worked IT in Uk (london), but they were paid poor wages. so lets go the whole hog and import all staff right up to CEO level, after all what was the quote from one CEO- difficult to find top grade people ? - yea thats right difficult to find top grade managment, lets slash staff cost and get rid of the ceo with their unjustified salaries and benefits
8. anonymous
Let's let all the IT skilled immigrants in, charge them 60% tax, then the Government can pay for the rest of us to stay at home.