Employers Band Together in Record Numbers to Fight IT Skills Shortage of One Million People

e-skills NTO reveal the reality behind the statistics of why IT is not able to recruit to meet its skill needs and employers respond with an immediate action plan

IBM, Logica, Microsoft, EDS, Intel, Ericsson, Nortel and ARM were just some of the names that today signed up to an e-skills Employers’ Charter committing them to working with the e-skills NTO, the National Training Organisation for IT skills, to take action to fight the growing shortage of IT professionals. It is predicted that an extra one million IT professionals will be needed by industry within the next five years. The employers urged those not already committed to work with them.

Employers produced the Charter in response to research published today by the e-skills NTO, which showed that the skills shortage could be eased by addressing the poor image of IT, broadening recruitment into the industry and by increasing the provision of work experience placements.

The research on image was undertaken by MORI and found that the image, amongst young people, and particularly women, puts them off pursuing careers in IT. IT professional roles were seen as highly technical, complicated and suitable for ‘nerds’ or ‘geeks’. Jobs in IT were not seen as exciting or dynamic. This image dramatically reduces the number of people considering careers in IT.

NOP’s research for the NTO found that employers recruited into IT professional roles from a very narrow band of people and new entrants tended to be restricted to young male graduates. This restricted the number of people who could come into the industry, meant lost productivity and denied the industry access to skills held by other groups, such as the business skills of older workers. NOP also looked at work experience and found that whilst employers were enthusiastic about the value of work experience in helping to give them employees who could "hit the ground running" they needed advice on how to give more quality work experience placements.

The NTO’s responsible for skills in information technology, communications and electronics led by e-skills NTO, in partnership with the government and employers of IT professionals, launched the campaign for action with the Charter. The NTO’s hope that the growing number of employers signed up to the charter will continue to increase. The employers and NTO’s are supported by both DTI and DfEE.

Patricia Hewitt MP, the Minister for e-commerce at the DTI was present at the launch and said, "there is no bigger challenge in preparing Britain for the information age than solving the IT skills crisis. We need many more skilled IT professionals coming into the workforce. So, I am delighted to welcome this initiative. The e-skill Employers’ Charter is a tangible demonstration of businesses determination to improve the supply of IT skills. I am particularly pleased to see action being taken to encourage a more diverse workforce in IT. It is not surprising that we have a shortage of IT workers when employers are only recruiting from half the potential talent. Raising the number of women in IT jobs will have a dramatic impact in helping to reduce skills shortages."

Mrs Hewitt MP, the Minister of State for small business and e-commerce, then went on to say, "the Government stands ready to play its part in addressing the skills challenge. We have already announced major commitments through the white paper, "opportunity for all in a world of change", designed to increase the number of specialist IT workers: and we look forward to working with business to drive forward the initiatives under the Employers’ Charter."

Michael Wills, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Learning and Technology, DfEE, also stressed the need for co-ordinated action, saying, "the under-representation of women in the IT industry is unlikely to change in the very near future unless we move together quickly to tackle the problems of image, especially at an early age where interest is visibly low amongst girls. This is where we need to focus our attention and I am sure that with the support of the e-skills NTO, Women’s Unit and DTI we will succeed."

In addition IT was viewed as an almost exclusively male dominated environment with poorer opportunities and rewards for women. Only 5% of young women consider entering the IT industry, making it one of the least likely industries to be considered as a career by women (26% consider medicine and 14% law). The report attributes this low rate of take-up to a lack of industry knowledge (40%), a lack of interest (25%) and the perception that the jobs are boring (25%).

"We’ve discovered a significant gap between how people view technology, particularly mobile phones and the Internet and how they view careers in IT. ‘Technology’ is viewed as cutting edge and future looking but ‘computers’ are seen as boring and the term ‘IT’ is only associated with computers. People who work in IT are seen as computer nerds who have no other interest and no interpersonal skills. There are a number of reasons why this image has been formed and e-skills employers now recognise that they have to take action to change it if they are going to be able to recruit the type of people they need," said Anne Cantelo, project manager, e-skills NTO.

Summary of e-skills NTO Image research findings are available on request.

Comments from supporting employers:

• Logica
  "Logica welcomes this initiative to address the problem of attracting more people into the IT industry. In particular, we believe that this will build on work already undertaken by Logica with schools in trying to change the perception of a career in IT. We look forward to working with the NTO's and others in the industry to collectively solve this problem."
  Jim McKenna, group personnel director
  
  
• Vistorm
  "Vistorm is very pleased to be part of this initiative. We are committed to developing the skills of our own rapidly growing staff and supporting initiatives that increase the availability of well qualified IT professionals in the UK market. Along with helping to fill our own skill needs we believe that IT will play a fundamental role in driving the competitiveness of the UK economy in the new e-world."
  Guy Tarring, marketing director.
  
  "Vistorm is at the heart of the new economy, and is a key driver of the continuing technological revolution that enables us all. People are at the heart of this, and as a 'people-centric' employer we welcome the opportunity to attract a broader range of skills to help build on our success. We welcome this initiative and are delighted to be associated with it."
  Paul Garvey, recruitment manager
  
  
• EDS
  "EDS recognises the importance of addressing the IT skills shortage in the UK, and is committed to working with the National Training Organisations, education and Government to help resolve this issue. As a company, EDS actively supports the initiatives flowing from the 'Skills for the Information Age' report, and believes the productivity and competitiveness of UK-based business will be accelerated by ensuring that demand for these vital skills can be satisfied."
  Alan Stevens, managing director, government accounts
  
  
• TNL
  "As one of Northern England’s leading IT companies TNL are fully supportive of any initiatives which seek to improve the current skills shortage. If we, and other companies like us, are to reach full potential we have to address this problem immediately. We must work with NTO’s and others in the industry to pro-actively present a positive image of our sector. By working closely with educational establishments to ensure that IT plays a key role in future curriculum’s we can begin to change people's perceptions and raise awareness. Through work placements we can give individuals first hand experience of what it is actually like to work in this industry and demonstrate the number of opportunities available within IT, not only on the technical side but also in the more traditional areas of management, marketing and administration."
  Kevin Curran, chief executive officer
  
  
• IBM
  "IBM recognises the importance of raising the profile of the IT industry by exploring new candidate pools and younger audiences, especially at girls schools and colleges. We support the IT Employers' charter."
  Rebecca George, EMEA director of staffing
  
  
• Ericsson
  "Ericsson recognises that the skills needs of the IT& Telecoms industries are now almost identical and in much demand. Ericsson is fully committed to working with the NTO's in order to address these issues."
  Keith Roberts, sector director
  
  
• ForeSite
  "As an Internet solutions company, what we sell is information and service led, and therefore the skills of our staff are vitally important to the success of ForeSite. This can be said for many companies within the IT industry. Sourcing staff with the correct skills and experience is becoming an increasingly difficult and expensive task for us and is a problem that needs to be addressed urgently. We feel that NTO’s, with the support of the industry, are in a key position to tackle this problem. ForeSite is committed to working with NTO’s to help solve this vital problem facing the IT industry and we urge other IT companies to do the same."
  Barnaby Moffat, director
  
  
• ARM
  "ARM recognises the importance of raising the profile of the IT and engineering industries and supports the e-skills-NTO initiatives to attract more people towards these sectors."
  Bill Parsons, executive vice president of human resources
  
  
• Nortel Networks
  "Nortel Networks is fully behind the IT Employers Charter's strategy. We recognise the importance of recruiting the best talent into the industry, and helping build the skills we will need in the future. We have many investment programs already running in Universities thoughout Europe, as well as close, longstanding links with education initiatives across the UK and Republic of Ireland. In the next few days, we will formally be launching the Nortel Networks Foundation programme, which will create hundreds of scholarships in Europe over the next three years."
  Mike O'Hara, chief marketing officer, EMEA
  
  
• CSSA
  "CSSA endorses and will actively support the e-skills NTO's initiatives on changing perceptions about careers in IT. We have ignored the negative image of our sector for too long, and it's now causing us real problems in finding the right people."
  John Higgins, Director General CSSA

About e-skills NTO
As the National Training Organisation (NTO) for the Information Age, e-skills NTO is a not for profit membership organisation with responsibility for the whole IT remit. Its role is to represent the IT industry as the national body for the sector and to improve the IT user skills of the entire UK workforce while addressing the skills needs of employers of IT professionals across UK industry.

e-skills NTO works closely with industry, education and government partners to identify and address key issues in order to improve workforce competence and maximise business competitiveness, and one of its main responsibilities is to develop and oversee standards and qualifications for IT users and professionals at a national level.

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For more information please contact:

Nyarrin Scanlan / Hugh Mark
AxiCom
/ 4653
/

Anne Cantelo
e-skills NTO