Mobile trends heighten skills shortage

As skills become ever more scarce in certain key sectors, inexperienced graduates are demanding wages far in excess of their market value.

Their demands are often fuelled by the belief that, as they are graduates walking into a market with a shortage of IT skills, they can expect the same salaries as experienced workers. The hype in the labour market can also the fault of some recruitment consultancies. In order to attract and maintain graduates on their books they often generate unrealistic expectations.

The government, aware of the current need to improve IT skills in the UK, has set in place a short-term solution in opening the door to migrant technology workers. At the same time it has exacerbated the situation with its unpopular IR35 legislation which is now undergoing judicial review.

Employers themselves have not helped. As wages rise, companies naturally expect more for their money. With the skills base diminishing, it has become increasingly difficult to find the finished article. This means that those who actually do fit the bill can demand even higher salaries.

All of this has produced some positive side-effects. Some in the industry who have complained in the past of an ageist attitude are beginning to see shift in favour of older workers.

Employers recognise that those aged over 40 are less likely to switch jobs, and have the one thing that no new graduate will ever be able to offer: experience. And there are no day-courses in experience. While some older people might not have up-to-date skills, they can be taught..

Unrealistic expectations
"Expectations have to change," said Shelley Gorys, sales director at recruitment consultancy Alexander Francis, during the TMA 2000 show. "If candidates have just half of the skills set and the right attitude, they can be trained. This will also level the salaries, because companies aren't going to pay as much for someone with less technical knowledge when they will spend time investing in training."

Graduate greed is a problem that a number of employers and recruitment consultants admitted they had experienced. Although often worth under £20,000, many demanded salaries in excess of £30,000 when applying for jobs in the communications field.

Too often, people are seduced by the short-term benefits of an instant high salary, rather than what will make them attractive to employers a few years down the line.

Lee O'Leary, a consultant with recruitment company Dream IT, commented: "You've got to show that you can win the major projects. Those with more foresight can see the value on their CVs later on."

"There's a lot of greed out there at the moment," he added. "Take the Cisco CCNA qualification. People can come out of university and pay several thousand pounds to get the training. They have no commercial experience, yet still expect to earn £30,000. When they get on a client's site they soon find out their true worth."

Training schemes
Global Crossing has attempted to solve its internal skills shortages in part by setting up a graduate training scheme. It has taken on 16 people, all earning realistic salaries, on a two-year training scheme. By the end of it they will have a broad range of skills mixed with commercial experience.

"They've been told that they are the management force of the future," said O'Leary, who interviewed candidates. "Global Crossing has taken them green but outlined their career path for them."

At the moment, the most sought after communication skills are voice over IP (VoIP), project management and post-sales technical people. The scarcity of recruits with experience in these fields are causing some of the biggest headaches. Ignoring the technical difficulties of VoIP, the technology has not been helped by the lack of skills in the area.

"We're looking for senior engineers and switch engineers, and giving them the training to go forwards," said Vicky Burbridge, a consultant at Dream IT. "However, we often find that once they have been trained they leave. Companies can keep up with the pace of technology, but they can't do the training quick enough."

Loyalty can seem in short supply, especially with the wages being dangled in front of potential employees. One training organisation recounts the story of training an IT person in three disciplines over the course of 18 months - and on each occasion he worked for a different company.

In demand
One option open to easing the skills shortage is to take people on as say a switch engineer, and guarantee them training in skills such as VoIP or Cisco.

Simon Davidson, director of training at the Phillips Group, said: "Companies pull people out of other areas and train them in VoIP because they can't get the staff. They have to take the raw ingredients and make the experts themselves."

The difficulty in filling vacancies is reflected in the salaries on offer. According to recruitment consultants Robert Walters, companies will pay £40,000 to £50,000 for people with even limited VoIP skills, but a director could earn up to £100,000.

"It depends on what the market will bear for the job," said Paul Rush, head of telecoms at Robert Walters. "These positions are hard to fill because of a lack of staff with very good skills. People with good VoIP skills are highly sought after in particular and consequently positions are hard to fill. Somebody with good skills could expect to receive five or six job offers."

The bad news for companies struggling to fill vacant slots is that there is no end in sight. Emerging technologies will create shortages, particularly when IT in other parts of the world catches up.

The skills predicted to be in short supply in the next few years include VoIP, GPRS, UMTS, Edge and eventually 4G as mobile communications enter the next phase.

While Edge is likely to present only a short-term problem, 3G will be another matter. As more countries license out 3G networks, competition for skills will become international. With so much money riding on a successful 3G strategy, the salaries will match.

"If you know how to design a UMTS network you are gold dust, and could easily earn over £100,000," said Davidson. "You could almost afford to be crap at your job and you'd make money. You can't churn out network engineers quick enough."

Skills most in demand and difficult to fill

• Java programmers
• Voice over IP
• Carrier communications
• Interconnect specialists
• xDSL positions
• Synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) technical architects on dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM).