By silicon.com, 4 January 2007 17:45
The so-called 'IT skills gap' continues to be a problem for many businesses, for both experienced staff and high-quality recruits from university and college.
silicon.com's most recent annual Skills Survey found that while programming languages such as Java and C variants are the technical skills in shortest supply, job applicants are also falling short on the non-technical business skills such as project management, leadership and industry knowledge.
Despite this skills shortage it was surprising to learn this week that IT graduates have the highest unemployment rates of university leavers across all degree subjects - including performing arts and media studies.
Some CIOs also stuck the boot in on the quality of IT graduates in this week's CIO Jury, complaining about their lack of fundamental skills such as writing and arithmetic. What use is a good programmer who can't write a project update or check if it is on budget?
The problem appears to be that many degree courses simply aren't turning out the well-rounded graduates needed in the modern business environment, although it also raises questions about the general quality of primary and secondary education in the UK.
In the case of IT it could be argued that the courses have become too vocational, training students in specific technical skill-sets instead of focusing on IT as a profession which also requires communication skills and business acumen.
For IT to add value to any organisation, the emphasis must be on the information (and exploitation of it) rather than the technology - and this is what the industry and the professional training for it must address.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Ken Rigby
IT is only a tool to promote efficiency within a business; it is the business itself that has to make money by using modern efficient methods of producing goods and services for its customers.
IT is like an engine for a car; it is the user who uses the tools to provide the necessary indicators and monitors for the business.
However, 3D metaphors will become more common in future to control and monitor business systems;
see http://mellanium.com for more information.
2. Karen Challinor
so could employing older people with who already have more than the requisite skillset
so could investing in and training the staff you already have rather than treating them as a financial drain on shareholder dividends
bleating about a skills shortage is simply a way to justify outsourcing and offshoring, which will in themselves eventually create a skills shortage
it's a self fulfilling prophecy
3. Adam Ripley
It continues to amaze me how little investment companies are willing to make in staff. They want staff with all the skills even when they are taking them out of college. We are a consultancy company but expect to invest heavily in adding the right professional and technical skills when they join us. If companies looked more for the correct person and were prepared to invest in technical skills (ie look longer term) the maybe they would get people that invest their future in them. I expect in the longer term they would spend less time interviewing contractors!!