Online action plan tackles skills shortage
Government agency launches consultation to meet needs of employers
Government agency e-Skills has launched an online consultation to help it meet the IT needs of employers in the next decade.
The Sector Skills Agreement (SSA) for IT invites feedback from employers and education providers on a series of proposals. The overall aim is to prepare the UK's workforce for careers in IT and raise the numbers of IT-trained employees.
E-Skills recently slammed the IT training industry for being unequal to the task of filling the UK's technology skills gap.
In a report last month, e-Skills found a skills shortage created by the growing demand for people with both IT and business and management skills. The report said this threatens to wreak "catastrophic damage" upon the UK's economy.
The SSA consultation document will appear on e-Skills' web site until the end of March. E-Skills told CRN it will welcome feedback from the IT industry.
Collette Lux, head of marketing and communication at e-Skills, said: "Our aim is to increase the skills of employees, even out the gender gap and increase the number of people working in IT. The scale of opportunity [in IT] is massive.
"The SSA should create a better and larger pool of employees. The key is to work collaboratively with employers and education providers."
David Freedman, IT sector head at sales training company Huthwaite International, said the SSA should have a strong market focus. "Academic courses don't always equip students with the tools they need to do the job in the real world. But if it's marketed correctly then it should be successful," he said.
Freedman added that employers should not rely too heavily on outside training companies.
"Employers shouldn't look at training as a sheep-dip solution. Every day staff spend away training has to be backed up with application and reinforcement by the employer in the real world," he said.