Europe facing ICT skills crisis

Young people in Europe need to be equipped with the relevant ICT skills to ensure that they can carve out a career for themselves in the ever growing digital sector.

That is the message which emerged from the recent European e-Skills week which highlighted that the majority of youngsters in the continent would not be considered 'digitally competent'.


"Virtually all young people are familiar with electronic games and social networking and might be considered as 'digital natives', but they are not 'digitally competent' in the sense that they do not know sufficiently how to use the digital world in a business context," said the European Commission (EC).


The Commission's vice president Antonio Tajani said that this issue is greater than people may first think as not only will it put many people in a position where they struggle to find a job, it could also hold back Europe in terms of "innovation and global competitiveness".


Data from the EC shows that by 2015 around 90 per cent of jobs will require some form of e-skills highlighting the importance of making sure that people are equipped to carry out such roles. Overall, the number of ICT practitioners in the European Union is set to reach 5.26 million within the next three years and the number of jobs for highly-qualified tech people expected to rise by 16 million between now and 2020.


The ICT sector is responsible for five per cent of European GDP, with an annual market value of €660 billion and this figure needs to grow if Europe is to maintain its position within the global economy.


"I am worried, as supply has become a bottleneck for growth in the tech sector, creating a leaky pipeline that threatens to hamper European innovation and global competitiveness. This is more important than ever in the current economic context. And it is crucial to increase creativity which will favour entrepreneurship and new start-ups," Mr Tajani continued.


The fact that Europe is not producing enough people with the necessary ICT skills has been well known for around a decade, but now there is a growing pressure to do something about it.


What steps can be taken?


The issue of IT skills shortages appears to lead back to schools, where too few pupils are engaging with the subject and studying it at a higher level such as A-level or degree.


Writing for The Drum, Steak's chief operating officer Duncan Parry said that children need to be taught a whole host of skills from a young age including IT security, how to use the internet as a source of information, fundamental computer best practice such as backing up files and avoiding data loss, how to communicate effectively using the web and digital health such a repetitive strain injury and declining eyesight.


The real struggle is perhaps how to pass on such skills in a lively and interesting manner which makes youngsters love IT and want to develop a career within the sector


Ideas such as the Raspberry Pi project in the UK which aims to provide pupils with cheap single board computers in a bid to stimulate their interest in ICT.


Other schools have tried to merge the lines between learning and pleasure by covering topics such as social media and computer design and animation.


Another way of boosting interest in IT in schools is to incorporate industry qualifications into the curriculum so students have an added incentive for taking up the subject.


The idea was highlighted by Michelle Selinger, director of education practice at Cisco, at the recent Vital roundtable in London.


Ms Selinger said that there needs to be a better link-up between what is taught in schools and the actual needs of the industry and accepting industry qualifications as part of the curriculum is one way to achieve this.


It seems that governments and businesses across the UK are waking up to potential problems that a lack of IT skills can cause and are trying to ensure that it is not too late to start training people up.


Adam Thilthorpe, Director of Professionalism at the Chartered Institute of IT, told Tech Eye: "The penny has dropped – it took a long time coming. It is very difficult to deny that IT has become absolutely ubiquitous.


"People are beginning to understand that if they get stuff right they can reap the benefits very quickly."