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05 Jul 2006
The UK's software development industry will suffer the same decline as the country's manufacturing sector unless action is taken to tackle the skills shortage, according to a report released today.
A study conducted by Microsoft, Lancaster University Management School and the British Computer Society found that those involved at the start of the UK software industry three decades ago are now moving towards retirement, and there are simply not enough graduates being trained to take their places.
Perhaps the most worrying figure is that the UK is turning out just 20,000 new IT graduates each year.
The study highlighted a 50 per cent drop in applications for computer related degrees in the past five years, with 47 per cent fewer systems engineering students and 60 per cent fewer software engineering students.
Even if the numbers of students recovers to previous levels, there will still not be enough to meet the demand for software developers.
"The UK faces an acute and growing shortage of high-end software skills," said Matthew Bishop, senior director of Microsoft's Developer Platform Group.
"With the same passion that young people enjoy the music players and computer games which the industry develops, they need to realise that their own futures can lie in creating the software that enables those experiences."
The report called for industry, academia and the UK government to work together to raise the profile of the industry and encourage more students to take computer science as a degree subject.
The study also found that insufficient numbers of UK software developers are being trained in the higher level skills that will be in demand in the future.
In comparison, Asian and Eastern European countries are producing hundreds of thousands of relevantly trained graduates every year.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) puts the current value of software production to the UK economy at £20bn, up from £2.5bn in 2003.
The ONS calculated that the industry employs one million workers, which includes commercial developers and in-house software developers.
The Microsoft-backed study suggested that 200,000 basic IT jobs will be off-shored by 2010.
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Do you agree?
Not True
I have a very good computer science degree and twenty years design and development experience. I have also been made redundant three times in six years. In each case my project was moved overseas to a cheaper country. If there is such a big skills shortage then why are employers so reluctant to take on a developer from a slightly different background? If you work in finance you cant get a software job in telecoms, if you work in retail you cant get a job in defence. If you've spent three years writing Java you wont be considered for a C++ job. Etc etc. With a wealth of software development experience I find myself forced to retrain for an alternative career career. My experiences simply do not tally with this research at all. My advice to students - avoid IT - I wish I had.
Posted by: Ash 02 May 2010
Where are all the web developers ?
This is my experience.... After 25 years in the industry, and self taught at that, I can 'hit the floor running', and gain employment relatively easily. My age is ignored over my skillset. My department cannot employ a single half-way competent web developer - really, no matter how many jobs ads, at good salaries. A colleague with a masters degree tells me he would not trust anyone on his course to do even the simplest of tasks. I suggest you find yourself a small company, work for peanuts, and work hard to build up a broad a range of skills. Then ask for a pay rise, or move on. That is what I did. I think this notion of walking from Uni to a well paid job is not today's reality.
Posted by: Anthony 17 Jan 2010
IT IS A BIG JOKE
I AM QUALIFIED WITH MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) AND MCT (Microsoft Certified Trainer) SINCE 2000 AND ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) IN 2006 AND COULD NOT GET A JOB IN IT INDUSTRY. IT COST ME A LOT OF MONEY AND EFFORT TO GET QUALIFIED IN THESE AREAS BUT I DID NOT REAP THE REWARD.
Posted by: FJ 13 Aug 2009
Government funding policy exacerbates IT skills shortages
The IT graduate pipeline has been stemmed for some time with fewer people being attracted to the subject and a higher proportion dropping out of University or swapping to alternative courses. With more people using technology such as the internet or hand held mobile devices, it's confusing why IT isn't attracting new recruits in equal proportions. The lack of goverment funding for high level skills is part of the problem. The spiralling cost of University places is one issue and the lack of government funding to encourage career changers is another. Since 2001 there has been no financial incentive for individuals seeking IT training via private training providers. The Conservative's Vocational Tax Relief scheme encouraged a significant number of people to train towards an IT career. The percentage of the grant was equal to the individual's income tax bracket and therefore a significant contribution and simply administered by the Inland Revenue. Since the disastrous replacement in the form of Individual Learning Accounts in 2001, the Labour government has been paranoid about re-introducing a similar scheme to help UK adults fund private training courses. There's no doubt that this deliberation has badly affected the number new entrants to IT. In-demand Vendor qualifications such as Microsoft, are generally delivered by private sector training companies and with a cut in government incentives means a reduction in the number of individuals with the right skills and certification. If the government believed in 2001 that off-shoring would fill the skills gap, they were clearly wrong. UK PLC should be investing in high level skills that add value and make IT projects possible.
Posted by: Karl Parkinson - Computeach MD 06 Aug 2009
More Propaganda
I started in web design in 1999. 9 years later there are no jobs in web design. There have never been any jobs in web design and all you hear is training companies giving aload of spin. Forget C,Python Java, HTML whatever. You won't get a job in the UK in IT. The only people making money in IT are IT trainers. They train people for the dole queue. Forget it !
Posted by: Jim Sutherland 27 Jul 2008
Cheap Labour Shortage
There is no skills shortage in the UK. There is only a shortage of qualified and experienced workers willing to do the job for an Indian workers salary.
Posted by: Ooby 07 Feb 2008
Nonsense
Outsourcing is rampant within the IT industry. Many project managers are now asked to justify why they should employ local staff at all. If you want any job security, don't get into IT. You're just treated like a disposable commodity and threatened with outsourcing constantly. Leave it to the Indians who will work for $10/hour.
Posted by: Guy Pierce 22 Jul 2007
Load of Bull
WARNING DON'T GO INTO I.T. YOU WONT GET A JOB AT THE END OF YOUR TRAINING. Based on false information the government are stupidly allowing thousands of imigrant workers to be shipped into the IT industry like aupairs and take ALL the IT jobs from the highly skilled, qualified, experienced homegrown talent. Of course the companies are saying that there is a shortage of UK IT staff, so they can be allowed to ship in a cheap and in many cases a poorly trained labour force from abroad or even send the work abroad completely. The Companies did it with manufacturing, then the call centres and now they have done it with IT. The govenment have decimated the IT industry first with our home grown talent having to pay disproportionate and extortionate taxes under IR35 (which the immigrants don't pay) and then allowing the businesses to ship them in from abroad by the lorry load! The industry IS in crisis if you are British dont touch it with a barge pole unless you want to be paid immigrant worker wages for years of training and experience and loose out on family credit etc because of it being worked out before tax! 99% of the British IT workforce aren't even lucky enough to get an interview!
Posted by: Mark 03 Apr 2007
Skills Shortage - what a joke
As others have said - industry and management are totally to blame. They turned their backs on UK computer graduates 5 years ago, putting doubts in their minds that there was a future in IT. Now they are back crying wolf and saying they can't recruit. Why should we believe in the IT sector when it's own management clearly don't ?
Posted by: George 10 Nov 2006
I agree
I agree with 'Shoto', what's the motivation to study IT when your job is likely to be offshored? That dilemma is the IT industry's fault, for giving young adults the (very real) impression that there's no future in an IT career.
Posted by: Kathy 03 Nov 2006
Awareness
Are you still aware of that many IT graduates still looking for a traineeship in UK. We can't tackle this situation unless otherwise you guys fill these gaps.
Posted by: BJB 30 Jul 2006
IT "skills shortage"
The dwindling number of IT graduates in the UK should act as a wake-up call for companies to take action to educate their current employees before declaring a "skills shortage". With around 70 per cent of the world?s business still running upon ageing legacy COBOL systems, many enterprises have come to rely on older legacy specialists who have the knowledge and experience to run them. As such, it is not surprising that there has been much speculation about these workers reaching retirement age and so creating an impending skills crisis. While this may seem to be a daunting situation, companies must act now to overcome this problem. Even though the age of a legacy COBOL worker tends to be higher than most, they have on average ten years before they reach retirement. Companies should see this as an opportunity to map out their legacy applications portfolio, identifying the systems, and therefore the skills, they will need in the future. Not only will this allow firms to recruit appropriate workers in plenty of time, but also transition in-house skills accordingly. Combined with initiatives to breakdown the IT silos that so often exist between mainframes and contemporary systems, companies will be able to minimise any significant loss of knowledge when older staff members retire and ensure a smooth transition of IT skills in the future.
Posted by: Julian Dobbins, Micro Focus 12 Jul 2006
IT Skills shortage, what shortage?
I read the article and as a skilled programmer/analyst all I have to say is if the parameter known as age was removed from the equation then the available workforce would expand considerably. I am aware that ageism is still rampant in the industry and as long as people over 40 are ignored and can't get interviews then this problem will not go away. What graduate wants a 20 year working life? At 40 you are well over the hill (or at least thought to be) in the IT industry. Time for employers to wake up and stop bleating about shortages and take advantage of the huge resource that's been sidelined for no real reason.
Posted by: Dave 06 Jul 2006
howabout some science grads instead ?
When i started work as a programmer they were recruiting people with all sorts of science degrees and giving them training though admittedly this was the large employers who paid lower wages. It seems these days they all want pre trained graduates. Its time that market forces got to grips with market realities
Posted by: Ian Turner 06 Jul 2006
Skills shortage
I am not in the least surprised that severe skills shortage is predicted in the IT Industry. Its the same situation faced by the Social Work field I workked in in the early 80's ie every advert you look at wants someone with a number of years experience and/or relevant qualifications. Employers are, in my opinon, largely responsible for the position they are facing. If all the employers insist on experience and qualifications, where are interested individuals supposed to gain the necessary experience in order to qualify for attendance on relevant training courses if more vacancies at a trainee level are not created? With employees leaving the profession due to retirement, ill-health or a change of career, who's supposed to take their place? Employers need to be prepared to take on more people and train them up and/or second them to relevant training courses and then offer attractive packages in order to retain skilled staff. Carry on with the same blinkered attitudes that currently exist and the situation will never improve.
Posted by: Roger Powell 05 Jul 2006
Is offshoring to blame?
With many UK and international software houses utilising cheaper labour from abroad there is a perception that there would be no long term future for UK based software developers. Combined with fairly static salaries where is the incentives?
Posted by: Shoto 05 Jul 2006
Skills Shortage is industries own fault
I am not in the least surprised with the looming IT skills shortage. I graduated in 2000, and I, along with some 20% of my fellow graduates could not get a job. This is the industries own fault for being too picky about graduates, giving the false impression of a skills surplus and putting doubt about future employment into college leavers heads. Wake up and taste the coffee.
Posted by: Mark 05 Jul 2006
Whats new
Dont expect the Government to do anything positive, Why blame employers for not training people when the schools cannot get to grips with what is required by industry.
Posted by: Robert John 05 Jul 2006