Lack of skills acts as a brake on UK's ability to compete

Citation

(1999), "Lack of skills acts as a brake on UK's ability to compete", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 20 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.1999.02220aab.003

Lack of skills acts as a brake on UK's ability to compete

Lack of skills acts as a brake on UK's ability to compete

Keywords IT, Skills shortages, United Kingdom

Twenty per cent report loss of control; mismatch between IT as taught and workplace needs is confirmed as a key problem in a UK survey.

A lack of qualified IT professionals is hampering the UK's ability to compete on the world stage, adding to domestic recessionary pressures, according to a research report published by Information Builders. The report, "Bridging the gap", based on a survey of 100 teachers and employers, confirms a gulf between IT as taught and the needs of UK firms. But employer attempts to "blame" education miss the point, concludes the survey.

The most worrying finding of the report is that it confirms anecdotal claims by employers that the wrong IT skills are being taught in the UK's universities, colleges and schools. "Too much emphasis is placed on teaching office productivity tools how to use word-processing packages and so on ­ and not nearly enough on programming, according to the employers surveyed," commented Clive Parminter, UK vice-president of Information Builders. "This is causing real recruitment problems now, and will continue to act as a brake on the UK's competitiveness unless tackled quickly", he added.

Education and business agree on the importance of communication and teamworking skills, found the report. The mismatch, and the resulting brake on business performance, lie rather in technical skills.

As a result, 20 per cent of employers say they have lost some control over their systems (and hence, their business), while 31 per cent report that end-users are having to pick up the pieces by becoming part-time IT people ­ fixing problems themselves. In attempting to identify the causes of the skills gap, the researchers found that not a single employer in the survey felt IT educators have a clear understanding of the IT skills needed in business.

As a possible contributory factor, the report notes that less than a third of IT lecturers and teachers questioned have worked in IT and 31 per cent have no IT qualifications.

But, attempts to "blame" education miss the point. Universities, colleges and schools are as much victims of the IT skills crises themselves, priced out of the market for IT professionals as wages are pushed up by the private sector, and without the resources to keep up with rapid changes in the way business uses technology.

"We have become an IT-driven world. But it is increasingly obvious that the UK does not have enough IT professionals to keep firms running to their optimum capacity," concluded Clive Parminter. The report finds the long-term solution is for businesses to reach out more effectively to education, offering more work experience to students and teachers, rather than just fire-fighting the consequences.

Encouragingly, employers recognise they are just as responsible as universities for fixing the problem, concludes the survey.

A full copy of the report and photography is available on request. Tel: 0181 982 4763