Computer games 'can help plug IT skills gap'

Young people need to become more enthused about science subjects and the possibilities of a career in IT to make the UK more competitive in the future, according to Stephen Timms, minister for competitiveness.

At the 2007 Parliament and the Internet Conference in Westminster, the minister said schoolchildren's enthusiasm for computer games should be harnessed to encourage the development of skills in maths and science, the proliferation of which would eventually make the UK more competitive globally. The minister underlined the need for additional funding to encourage IT skills development.

Timms said: "We need to get young people excited about maths and computing, and use the enthusiasm young people have for computer games to make them enthusiastic about maths and science. We've got a very big skills gap. Our most pressing challenge is competing in the global economy, so the biggest imperative is to raise the level of UK skills by investment in education."

Timms called on the IT community to help plug this skills gap. "We need computing science skills in the UK - not just broader science but technical skills. I hope the community and others can help," he said.

The minister praised the work of e-skills UK, the government IT-sector skills council, and said the government plans to follow the recommendations of the Leitch Report, which primarily advised funding as a solution to the skills problem.

Timms said: "A whole panoply of things need to be done to provide people with the skills they need."

Information security consultant David Lacey said reliance on university education to give the right balance of computer science skills necessary for a job in IT is inadequate.

He said: "At the moment the only real education available is at university but training is the key, not [university] qualification. University education in relatively new subject areas, like computer security, is hard because it takes a long time for a discipline to mature, and a lot of feedback to kick it into shape."

Lacey, the former director of information security for Royal Mail, called on the industry to implement staff IT training. "Training in industry is not good - companies just don't pay. [The industry is] just not doing enough. Someone has to put their hand in their pocket and pay for it," he said.

However, Richard Clayton, a security expert at Cambridge University and an adviser to the government's Science and Technology Committee, said it is a mistake to think universities should provide training as opposed to education. "There's a difference between education and training," he said. "Universities teach people how to think about and understand big issues. Training gives skills in, say, programming languages like Cobalt."

Clayton called for more women to be encouraged to enter the IT industry, and also for government backing. "There were more women in computing when I went to university in the 1970s than now. That is a scandal. The fact this is not being addressed at the highest level is also a scandal," he said.

David Evans, government relations manager for the British Computer Society, said the IT industry could sometimes be its own worst enemy in not communicating enthusiasm. "The truth is IT is so important and jobs in IT can be so engaging to work in. We need to believe it and communicate that properly to create a sense of aspiration and a belief that IT can lead to exciting places," said Evans.

Tom Espiner writes for ZDNet UK