Foreign workers not needed by UK IT - poll

Mind the IT skills gap? Not according to technology users voting in a silicon.com poll, the majority of whom firmly believe it's unnecessary for overseas workers to be drafted into service here.

More than three-quarters - a resounding 77 per cent - of respondents to the reader poll said they don't believe the UK needs to bring in skilled IT workers from overseas to fill posts. Just over a fifth (23 per cent) disagreed, indicating they do believe foreign workers are a necessary addition.

The majority view is at odds with sentiments recently expressed by senior industry executives - and by the silicon.com CIO Jury IT user panel which this week voted by a ratio of seven to five that location is a consideration often put on the back burner when it comes to sourcing resources.

In July BA's CIO Paul Coby warned the UK is facing a serious IT skills crisis which he said could cripple businesses' ability to compete. Speaking at the time he said: "We're all finding it's tough to find top-grade staff."

The CEO of SAS, Jim Goodnight, also recently spoke out on the subject. Back in June, Goodnight called for the UK and US governments to open their borders to skilled overseas IT workers as a means of fostering innovation and maintaining competitive edge, adding that the IT industry is "screaming" for changes to immigration laws.

However reader comments responding to that story expressed doubt on the existence of a skills gap in the UK.

Philip Virgo, a strategic advisor to the Institute for the Management of Information Systems, cast doubt on the existence of a skills shortage - saying the problem is instead a lack of "opportunity/incentive to maintain, upgrade and update" the skills of the existing IT workforce.

Another reader - a software manager from Milton Keynes - also took a sceptical view of the skills gap. He cited "prejudice" against older workers and a demand for young graduates as contributing to staff shortages rather than a lack of available experience, adding that "UK companies have a poor record of supporting vocational training of their employees".

The poll was based on the responses of 412 silicon.com readers.