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Kayleigh Bateman, CRN 30 Jan
2008
The UK skills black hole is widening with a 50 per cent slide in IT
students over the last five years and 140,000 new recruits needed to
satisfy demand, according to IT skills body e-skills.
The National Outsourcing Association (NOA) has expressed its concerns
saying that companies need to fill the gaping hole at the lower-skilled
end of the industry immediately.
Martyn Hart, Chairman of NOA, said: “At present the IT industry is
struggling to recruit the next generation to the profession, as the
‘nerdish’ image of an IT worker puts off many youngsters from entering
the industry.”
Hart explained as skills move to low labour cost areas, the UK has to
react by developing the skills and competencies necessary to develop new
products, designs, technologies. In turn this will mean better
education, training and entrepreneurship.
“The IT industry may rectify this image but this is a long term project.
So how can the IT skills gap be plugged in the shorter term? One
solution is outsourcing and/or offshoring,” he added.
He continued to say that by choosing an offshore supplier, companies can
employ low-cost specialists to carry out work that they can not complete
in the UK and that the high end management work tends to stay in the UK.
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