This article was published in the December 2000/January 2001 issue of the IT Training magazine.
The IT Training website is available at
www.train-net.co.uk
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The revitalised e-skills NT0 has its sights set on solving the UK skills riddle. To outline its focus, Karen Price explains how the organisation is prioritising and addressing the challenge
"We're all aware of the unprecedented demand for IT skills and the nationwide problems in recruitment, training and salary inflation. The situation is unsustainable and radical changes are needed.
To start with, employers must get together to prioritise and articulate skills needs, then a multitude of initiatives are required to address them.
Everyone is familiar with IT employers saying that the education system doesn't deliver, with trainers complaining that employers can't explain what they want, and with students' misconceptions of a nerdy industry with boring jobs for antisocial people.
Our job at the e-skills NT0 is to put these inhibitors behind us, present IT as an attractive option and facilitate UK employers and educators to work in partnership to make this happen.
Formed as a result of a merger between the e-business.nto and ITNT0, the e-skills NT0 has been accredited by the government as the voice of employers on IT skills and competitiveness issues.
It is an employer-owned, non-profit-making organisation with three responsibilities.
First, it instigates programmes to improve UK industries' global competitiveness by focusing on world-class skills.
Second, it is concerned with training IT professionals to increase the strategic exploitation of IT by companies in all sectors.
Third, the government has asked it to take a leadership role in increasing the general IT competence of the workforce.
There is widespread recognition of the UK's world-class multimedia companies, internet start-ups and IT-dependent, high-value businesses in financial services and biochemistry.
However, we face considerable challenges in exploiting this inherent capability. Leading organisations are joining with us to deliver initiatives ranging from attracting more non-IT graduates to the industry, to working with training providers on course content, to channeling European funding to employers that commit to staff training programmes.
The starting point is strategic planning. We are currently working on skills foresight analyses to develop coherent pictures of skills needs for industry competitiveness. From this, we will then be drawing up action plans for each of the three communities: the IT industry itself, IT professionals across all industry sectors and general users of IT.
A key objective is that, by working with teams that included employers, education and training providers, we produce respected, usable information that copes with the dynamic IT industry.
From previous experience, we have found that filling the information void is a surprisingly effective way of attracting people.
One initiative underway to attract much greater numbers of IT recruits involves research and marketing into the best potential labour pools for the industry and why misconceptions have developed that discourage suitable candidates from careers in IT.
Another project, called the 21st Century Women, addresses the under representation of women graduates applying for IT jobs. Yet another unites employers and educators to provide UK universities with up-to-date and attractive information on IT careers.
We have a tremendous opportunity and an unprecedented imperative to work together with new impetus on these IT skills issues. With a concerted, focused effort over the next few years, we will exploit the existing advantages of the UK to establish our position as a world-leader in IT. To keep updated with progress, visit www.e-skillsnto.org.uk"
Karen Price is chief executive of the e-skills NTO