Dear silicon.com... Tech skills slump, gov't snooping, Segway safety

The so-called skills slump in the UK has attracted a lot of attention this week, with many readers blaming the education system and outsourcing for the drought. Also, the government's latest surveillance plans have had readers up in arms… and finally the recent calls by Lords to lift the Segway ban in Britain has divided readers…

Skills slump?
Skills slump eroding UK's top tech talent

Is this at all surprising given that IT has been a "sink" subject in schools for the last few years, with the best schools not even carrying it as a GCSE option. A-Level IT is a joke, giving very little grounding in the subject at all, and an IT degree from most universities carries less value to employers than Media Studies or Surfing.
-- Anonymous, Midlands

As a freelancer/contractor I find it amazing employers expect those of us who fill in the specialist gaps within their organisation to work for peanuts. How on earth do they think we keep our skills and qualifications up to date?

There is a large workforce out there more than capable of meeting business needs but business just won't pay a sensible rate to ensure the limited company freelancers remain capable of meeting market needs…
-- Mikal Dunne, Sussex

An industry that dumps anyone aged more than 40 on to the scrapheap as quickly as possible has no right to complain about skills shortages or lack of talented IT teaching staff.
-- Karen Challinor, UK

Editor's choice

silicon.com editor Steve Ranger flags up his picks on the site this week...

♦ The Naked CIO: Madness in the method
♦ Photos: Microsoft beams outer space to the desktop
♦ Photos: Welcome to Satyam's R&D labs
♦ Is SOA testing tough enough?

We have already lost a whole generation of engineers. Nobody forced the employers to go abroad, they chose to on the idea of shareholder value!

British employers treat IT staff like office furniture, like non-value-based commodities rather than assets. IT education is in a bad state because the said people have tried to manipulated education/governments to suit their short term needs.

Karen is right about the age issue but it's still about gender and other forms of stereotypes.
-- Rob H, London/Kuala Lumpur

Karen is correct - there are thousands of highly skilled IT people doing other jobs just because they know more than the people who are recruiting them.

When you look at what the government mandates as IT training in schools there is no wonder that we have a shortage of entry-level candidates. The course content is puerile and superficial - furthermore we don't yet have typing on the National Curriculum…
-- Roger Huffadine, Worcester

Sleepwalkers?
Critics attack gov't email, phone database plan

Another kick in the teeth for us consumers. The EU are negotiating reductions in service charges for the UK but this snooping charter could negate any benefit. The ISPs and telcos will justifiably raise their charges again to cover the extra cost of retaining users' data.
-- Radical Meldrew, Suburbs

Let them do it - the people that they need information about have already stopped using mobile phones and email for communication - if they want to continue monitoring my messages who cares?

All this proposal does is demonstrate, once more, just how little the government knows about covert operations - maybe that's because we have junior advisors in Whitehall who have GCSEs in IT so they are already well qualified in knowing nothing about IT.
-- Roger Huffadine, Worcester

Under a controlling, or dictatorial government this provides the perfect tool for keeping the masses under control.

We have already gone too far in surveillance, this is not sleepwalking into a big brother society, we are already there. This is bolting the door and throwing the key away.
-- Martin Anderson, Reading

We aren't sleepwalking anywhere, we are being taken against our will

HMG simply ignores objections with the "nothing to fear, nothing to hide" argument but HMG doesn't like being under the microscope any more than you or I, so you can bet the law will be worded so it doesn't apply to government departments, ministers, politicians or local councillors…
-- Karen Challinor, UK

Dangerous driving?
Calls to lift UK Segway ban

Let's issue every member of Lords with a Segway now. With a range of up to five miles they might forget the way back!
-- Radical Meldrew, Suburbs

Radical Meldrew should not rubbish the Lords. They often have more grasp of technology than the Commons, because most of them are not professional politicians and some of them have current contact with the real world.

Look at their sustained rearguard action against ID cards, and their more recent demands for more e-crime policing.
-- Dick Vinegar, Wimbledon

If we banned every vehicle that had seven accidents I wonder if there would be many vehicles on our streets?
-- Mike Poole, Edinburgh

Motorbikes are pretty dangerous and I bet there are more than seven serious incidents involving them today. Will they still be allowed tomorrow?
-- Steve, London

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