BI report shows huge holes in IT knowledge

According to a recent report conducted by CBI/ Pearson, over half of businesses are running remedial IT courses to bring employees up to speed.

The survey, covering 566 employers with a collective 2.2 million employees ,highlights that many employers, although generally satisfied with their employees, are not satisfied with their level of IT skills. 51 per cent of businesses are now providing remedial IT training for adults in the workplace.



Graduates


Overall there was a good level of satisfaction with graduate IT skills, with 26 per cent of businesses describing themselves as very satisfied; 68 per cent were satisfied and only six per cent were unsatisfied. Despite the general overall satisfaction of graduate employers, five per cent of businesses had to undertake remedial numeracy training for their graduate recruits.



School leavers entering the work place also needed additional training to subsidise their IT skills, with 20 per cent of companies deeming it necessary to provide additional training. Contrasted to the 17 per cent of businesses offering remedial training to graduates, it seems that while IT skills in schools are not fully preparing students for the work place, neither are universities. 20 per cent of employers reported that team working amongst graduates was a less than satisfactory and that one fifth of graduates also had an issue with problem solving.



School Leavers



The report also exposed the fact that many young people are leaving school not only without adequate IT skills but also have serious shortfalls in their employability skills. It is not just a lack of technology skills that employers would like to see improved over the coming years- 70 per cent of those surveyed stated that they would like to see employability skills become embedded into the current curriculum to better prepare students for the workplace.



These skills, also known as ‘soft skills’ comprise of communication ability, problem solving team working, time management and attitude to work. Encouraging students to take part in work experience before entering into full time employment could also benefit both school leavers and workplaces alike.



Thirty per cent of those surveyed commented that they would also like to see the government encourage schools and high education faculties to place more emphasis on developing technology skills.



Keith Attwood, chair of CBI’s education and skills committee said “The education and training of our current workforce and future recruits to our workforce is central to economic recovery. It’s their skills and their creativity that will be at the heart of the recovery process. Long term economic success is inexplicably linked to a nation’s standard of education and skills.”


There is an increasing focus on training in the workplace, with over two fifths of companies are looking to increase their investment over the next year.



The future’s bright?



With many businesses steadily moving towards and into the IT sector, a lack of skilled workers threatens to leave many job openings empty.


A recent statement from eSkills UK reports that 1.5 million people are currently employed in the IT and Telecoms industry and that employment in these sectors will grow at 2.19 per cent per annum- that’s five times faster than the national average.


With the current ICT national curriculum under reform, one can only hope that there will be greater emphasis placed on this growing market within schools. 2014 will bring with it the new syllabus s the current system is to be scrapped in September this year.


So what will school do until 2014? Schools will still be required to teach ICT at all levels but for the time being, teachers will be given free reign over what is taught, rather than the government. This ‘open source curriculum’ will be closely monitored and it is hoped that while weak ideas will not survive in this environment, strong ideas will thrive and may ultimately form the backbone of the new curriculum.

Encouraging girls to train in ICT

ICT is, wrongly, often seen as a male dominated environment and one of the biggest challenges the industry faces in the coming years is to avoid a skills shortage by recruiting more female workers and encouraging girls to embrace related subjects at school.

Recent figures released by e-skills show that women account for only 18 per cent of the IT and telecoms industries, despite 47 per cent of the UK workforce being female.

And it seems that if this is to be rectified then efforts need to be made to attract girls to IT at a young age as currently they are losing interest in the subject at school and never regaining a passion for it.

Figures show that females account for just nine per cent of those taking computing A-Levels at the moment and this figure is dropping further year after year.

The key to tackling this issue, experts have suggested, is to try and make IT more interesting and engaging by showing the wide range of roles it encompasses and also teaching it in conjunction with other subjects to demonstrate that IT touches so many parts of life.

Girls in ICT Day

In April the second annual International Girls in ICT Day was held with the aim of empowering women in IT and promoting gender equality within the sector and a number of events were held across the globe to mark the occasion.

Over the next three years a number of steps will be taken to further develop this initiative, including the appointment of special Girls in ICT ambassadors and the development of the Girls in ICT web portal so that it includes details of IT scholarships, training programmes, awards and courses which may be of interest to girls wanting to develop a career within the industry.

Commenting on the scheme, International Telecommunications Union Secretary-General, Dr Hamadoun I. Touré said: "In today’s world, there are far more jobs in ICTs, and career opportunities that rely on ICTs, than all the other jobs put together.

"There is a global skills shortage which amounts to the most extraordinary opportunity for girls and young women.

"These are exciting and engaging jobs that will really make a difference in every sector of the economy – from farming to healthcare, or from aerospace to education. ICTs are fun, challenging, and have a major impact in every part of our lives."

School projects

And while these global initiatives will no doubt play a large role in getting girls interested in IT it is important that steps are also taken on a more local level.

One school in Northern Ireland recently took steps to tackle the issue head on and set up a Computer Club for Girls.

Holy Trinity Primary School in North Belfast is one of 40 schools in the region which are running such afternoon clubs to help get young girls interested in and acquainted with computers from an early age.

Department for Employment and Learning Minister, Dr Stephen Farry, told 24 Dash: “The ICT sector is very important to the success of the NI economy and I support this initiative which aims to encourage young girls to consider this sector for a future career.

"Research shows that 92 per cent of those participating in the Computer Clubs 4 Girls said they would consider studying ICT at GCSE, A Level or degree level, and I hope that some of the participants here today will enjoy a career in ICT in the future."

Teacher feedback on the schemes has been positive so far and it is hoped that the club will have a demonstrable impact on the number of girls going on to develop a career in IT.

And for those who are beyond school age, it is never too late to develop an interest in IT and you may even be able to train in an area which complements your existing skill set.

Whether your interests lie in finance, media, marketing or education, there is sure to be a link to IT somewhere and a course which will help you get to the position you want.

The older workforce and ICT

Sometimes, IT can mistakenly be seen as a young person's career choice. ICT training in schools is today much more prevalent and people who left education in the 1990s or earlier are unlikely to have been given the same level of skills as young people currently entering the world of work.

However, with the IT industry experiencing skills shortages in many roles, there is a real opportunity for older people to re-train and pick up the skills set they need to fill gaps within the workforce.

According to e-skills, there are currently 105,000 vacancies within the ICT sector, but only 30,000 computer science graduates recorded in 2009/2010 to take them meaning that companies will have to look elsewhere to fill much-needed roles.

This problem becomes even more pressing given the fact that the IT sector is scheduled to expand at five times the national average rate over the next ten years.

However, despite these obvious issues, a recent Channel Four News report suggests that there are still some barriers to hiring older IT workers, both in terms of companies' reluctance to offer them roles and people not being aware of the opportunities available to them.

Speaking to the news provider, Jeff Brooks, chairman of REC Technology, the trade body for the IT and Comms recruitment, said that more work needs to be done to persuade employers that older employees can help them out.

"I think there is a trend that older workers are not being invited for interview," he says. "I do know of people in their early 60s, who have real skills to offer, who can't find a contract or a permanent role."

"Despite the fact that employers have skills shortages right now, jobs sit empty, projects don't get done, because they have this bias against older people," says Mr Brooks. "They don't see an opportunity to re-skill and get ten years work out of them."

One of the problems may be that training can be expensive and companies are unwilling to splash out the cash themselves.

Also speaking to the news provider, Robin Jones from the Institution of Analysts and Programmers (IAP), said: "Big companies will do a lot of training in terms of graduate recruitment. Taking on a graduate and taking on somebody older, it will cost them the same."

He added that this coupled with a perception that older people do not take to training as well as younger people is what deters employers from hiring them.

In terms of why older people are reluctant to put themselves up for ICT jobs this also comes down to a question of training in many cases. Some people have been in the same job for a long time and while they may have the skills they don't necessarily have the qualifications or the confidence to transfer these attributes to a new position.

And this is where ICT training comes in. People don't have to wait for an employer to provide training they can take the initiative and undertake a course in their own time.

There are a wide range of IT courses available in all manner of areas such as programming, website design and database administration, with something to suit everyone regardless of their level of experience.

Taking a course gives people a qualification to put on their CV to help make it more impressive and will also give them the confidence that they can apply for jobs, answer questions well in the interview and perform competently if hired.

Ultimately, the UK's population is an ageing one and with the retirement age getting older over the coming decade the nation needs older workers to bring their expertise to the table which means that a lot of older workers may want to consider retraining in IT.

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."

Replacing existing skills

Within the IT department replacing skills as soon as a key person departs is paramount as so many different areas of the business depend on IT skills. For people working in an IT department who want to move up, see what skills senior workers use on a daily basis and make sure you are equipped to fill the gap. Having the ability to stand in for people when they leave is something which is sure to get you noticed