Anonymous

London

Service management

*If* there is an IT skills shortage in the UK, it's one of industry's own making and choice.

Many large companies - maybe even a majority - do not want UK IT workers on their books because they don't want the expense. You read of many IT graduates on Internet forums asking for help in getting a UK IT job, because employers and agencies do not want them in well-paid IT roles. Their only opportunities are often part-time, call-centre work - something anyone can do, and hardly the future they'd imagined for themselves when they started their IT courses.

The restriction on the immigration of IT workers should push employers towards looking at UK staff again in some instances, but it's no surprise to read the words of people with a vested interest in cheap, overseas labour, making dire threats about the future of the IT labour market in the UK. Chaps - please wipe away your crocodile tears. At least some UK IT workers and graduates might get a chance now.

If that headline was a question, then the answer would be 'no' - any company with an inclination to off-shore would do so anyway.