By Steve Ranger, 15 October 2007 13:48
NEWS
The UK is not heading for a tech skills crisis, despite fears to the contrary, according to CIOs and the audience at the silicon.com CIO Forum being held today.
In a live version of silicon.com's popular CIO Jury, a panel of IT chiefs at the event was asked whether a lack of homegrown IT talent is creating a crisis for UK plc.
For the prosecution, TripleIC CEO David Butler, argued that despite the potential for offshoring IT, there is still a need for homegrown talent.
He said: "However many resources we use from overseas we need a nucleus of capabilities... and strategists and technicians to oversee it." But he warned that while young people might understand eBay Facebook and YouTube, they "have no idea that IT has a fundamental strategic role to play in the globalisation of world trade".
Part of the problem is that while once IT was regarded as "dead cool", now tech professionals are seen as geeks, he said.
But for the defence, Rorie Devine, CTO of Betfair said the UK is not facing a crisis - but in fact doing quite well.
He blamed the end of the dot-com boom "in IT attractiveness" for a drop in the number of graduates, and said new technologies make it much easier to integrate teams working around the world. "We have to have a global perspective and see it not as a crisis but as an opportunity," he told the audience.
He added: "There's not a crisis but we can do better because there is a massive opportunity here - we need to be part of that solution and not the problem," and called for a target of 100,000 UK IT graduates every year.
But Chris Broad, head of IM and technology at the UK Atomic Energy Authority, warned that universities need to improve the way they teach tech: "Academia does not understand commercial computing and the generation that does is close to retiring."
He said CIOs and IT directors need to be out and fostering connections, and added: "We have to explain to the talented people that are out there what the career involves and how exciting it can be."
After all the arguments had been put on stage, the Jury - which also included Transport for London Group CIO Phil Pavitt, Dominic Cameron director of technology at lastminute.com and Jane Kimberlin IT director Domino's Pizza - was hung.
The casting vote went to the audience at the event in central London, with 34 per cent saying the lack of homegrown talent is creating a crisis, while 59 per cent said it is not - leaving seven per cent unsure.
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1. Arunn Ramadoss, Micro Focus
Rorie Devine claims that the UK should see its current skills shortage from a ‘global perspective’, yet it is clear for most within the IT industry that the problems caused by this impending crisis are already being felt much closer to home. Although some may feel that IT staffing issues in Britain represent a long-term opportunity, it is also beyond doubt that they pose a very real threat to business for the immediate future.
Vast amounts of information belonging to some of the world’s largest companies still lie within core systems, and updating and retaining this information is of the utmost importance to these organisations. However, the number of professionals equipped to deal with such applications continues to dwindle, as they are reaching retirement age and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find new graduates with adequate skills to replace them..
Global organisations have, over the past twenty years, spent thousands of man-hours carefully and strategically planning their information systems and their succession. Planning for the skills transition, however, has taken a back seat. If immediate steps are not taken to ensure a smooth transition of the precious knowledge and skills that are necessary to maintain and develop their lifeline systems, these organisations are going to be at a complete loss.
Seeing the current skills crisis as an opportunity is correct in as much as it provides an initiative to encourage young workers into the sectors in which they are most required. However, one should not underestimate the destructive impact this may have upon businesses if it is not averted.