India not a threat to IT jobs

Offshore IT outsourcing is an opportunity and not just a threat to IT staff and IT recruitment companies, according to top outsourcing experts.

Some of the advantages include UK tech staff getting the chance to work abroad on major projects, while UK staff agencies can grow their business in overseas markets. That was the view of a panel at an Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo) earlier this month.

The panel, which included Kevin Barrow of law firm Tarlo Lyons and Roland Trott of The Project Office, said that while application support jobs are easily filled in many offshore operations there is still a gap for mid-to-high tier IT staff to plan and manage major projects that have been moved out of the UK.

Ann Swain, CEO of ATSCo, said: "Businesses will always look to cut costs and the UK technology sector has to accept the reality of outsourcing and look at ways to adapt. In any business you have to move with your client. For some staffing companies and IT workers that may mean having to adopt a more global outlook."

UK tech staff with project management or business analysis skills would be particularly well-placed to take advantage of the offshore markets, while supplying highly-skilled UK staff for overseas projects could become an important growth area in IT recruitment, according to the panel.

The views contrast with a recent report into the UK IT staff agency market by analyst Ovum Holway, which predicted there will be no recovery until at least 2006 citing the lack of a 'next big thing' in technology and the rise of offshoring.