Calls for IT skills deficit to be addressed

The growing skills deficit in the UK IT industry needs to be addressed now before it gets worse, the programme manager of Intellect has said.

Carrie Hartnell wrote on Computing.co.uk that research suggests the skills shortage in the sector is likely to worsen over the next few years.

A recent study by the Council of Professors and Heads of Computing illustrates the problem: it predicts that demand for IT professionals will increase by up to 15% in the next eight years, while stating that the number of students aiming for jobs in the industry has fallen by 50% since 2001.

Ms Hartnell recommended that better training schemes should be introduced to ensure that those who do want to enter the industry are equipped with the appropriate skills.

In addition, she said that to reverse the current situation, perceptions about the sector and the teaching of IT in schools needs to be altered.

Meanwhile, the manager of the British Computer Society's Women's Forum recently stated that more females need to be encouraged to look at a career in the IT industry, calling for information about working in the sector to be provided in schools.