Skills slump eroding UK's top tech talent

The UK will lose its base of highly skilled technology workers unless training and education is overhauled, industry leaders have warned.

It must tackle a slump in technology teaching and employer training to avoid being forced to buy in top level talent from China and India.

The warning comes in a report by technology trade association Intellect into the state of the technology industry in the UK.

Agenda Setters 2007

Find out who made this year's Agenda Setters list of the top technology movers and shakers.

The report says technology-related education is declining rapidly and that UK tech companies cannot recruit enough engineering, maths, science and technology graduates.

While the tech sector needs more than 140,000 new entrants every year the number of applicants for single subject computer courses has fallen from 31,000 in 2001 to 16,000 in 2006 said the report.

Intellect said getting more talented and skilled individuals into the workforce by developing better links with the educators and trainers of the workforce, was one of six key boosters needed to stimulate the industry.

Richard Holway, of Farnham Consulting, warned the lack of people to fill entry-level jobs in technology threatens employers' ability to train up the next generation of project managers on the job in the UK.

He said: "I am worried that unless we have these entry-level jobs in the UK the real skills in project management will disappear and we will have to buy that in from India or China."

John Higgins, director general of Intellect, said: "Every discussion we have with the members about what would help the sector focuses on the ability to get hold of the calibre of people they want.

"It is always the same issues, the availability of people with the right talents and targeted skills in sufficient numbers."

The report is based on a survey of Intellect's 100-strong leaders network.

It predicted growth in the technology industry at one to three per cent above UK GDP saying that a slowdown was expected in consumer electronics and telecoms but there was a more positive outlook in the electronics sector.

Other boosters needed identified in the report were getting higher professional standards in the sector; improved trust and confidence in the sector's ability to deliver value securely; better exploitation of innovation; an improved communications infrastructure; and improved relations with other sectors.