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IT skills crisis: Quality staff are laughing... but lacking
Have you got the skills to pay the bills?

By Will Sturgeon

Published: Tuesday 15 February 2005

A skills crisis continues to grip the UK IT industry with highly qualified staff in increasing demand.

Two new reports highlight the breadth of this skills crisis – one shows recruitment is slowing, while another attributes this to a lack of the right candidates.

The British Chambers of Commerce today claimed a lack of properly skilled workers and a paucity of new talent coming onto the job market is endemic across all skilled sectors in the UK, including IT, while the Recruitment & Employment Confederation today claimed the rate of growth in recruitment is slowing.

The findings placed side-by-side appear to suggest there are positions out there for the right candidate – but appear to indicate that it is the right candidates, not the posts, which simply do not exist.

David Frost, Director General of the BCC, said today in London in a keynote address on skills: "Employers tell us all the time that they are frustrated that young people are not equipped with the right skills for the workplace. The system is simply not providing potential employees with the right skills for business and our figures show it has been failing for many years."

In fact the BCC reports a 50 per cent increase in the number of companies reporting problems finding individuals with the right skills for advertised positions.

"The skills of our workforce are already lagging behind many of our global competitors," added Frost. "The government must implement lasting reform in its proposals next week or our competitive edge could be seriously harmed. Businesses cannot wait any longer."

Next week the government will announce reform plans for secondary education including a greater emphasis on vocational training.

Take part in our seventh annual Skills Survey and have your say.