MPs ask for IT lessons from India

The government has dodged questions about the adoption of Indian IT education schemes in the UK.

In parliament yesterday Derek Wyatt MP, chairman of the All Party Internet Group, asked the Minister of State for Trade and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office if the UK is able to mimic India's training, which he claims has created more MBA graduates and individuals with IT qualifications than other countries.

According to Hansard, Wyatt said: "India has the largest number of graduates and postgraduates in computer science and the UK has more than 100,000 vacancies. We are fast-forwarding entry visas for people from India to take jobs in this country. Is there any way that we can copy and borrow India's system for training its computer scientists so that we can employ our own people?"

The Minister, Ian Pearson, replied that the government wants to create more IT jobs in the UK, but carefully sidestepped the question: "The important thing is to recognise the strengths in IT training in both the UK and India. Recently, there has been inward investment from Indian companies such as Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services, which are all in the ICT sector. We want that to continue to grow and we want skilled, high-quality jobs in the UK. My [honourable] friend has a point about the number of high-quality, skilled Indians being trained in that country at present."

Wyatt told silicon he is due to fly to India in September to learn more about IT training schemes there.

Last week, research company Deloitte released a report claiming the UK could become a world leader in technology if more money was invested in research and development, provided more practical education was given to young people.