Time to skill

There's a staff shortage in the IT industry - a shortage of staff with the right skills that is. This is leading to an out-break of people poaching and sky-high salaries. Annie Gurton looks at how companies are coping with the crisis and trying to hang on to their valued staff.

Opinions are divided on exactly why there is a staff crisis in the IT industry but the bald fact is that there are not enough people with the right skills to go round. This impacts in two crucial ways. One is that there is a virulent outbreak of people poaching and the other is that the salaries which have to be paid to those with the desired skills have gone through the roof.There are shortages across the board, but it is in technical, programming and pre-sales support where the vacuum is most critical. And, because nature abhors a vacuum, people are moving in from outside the industry to fill the places.

In time the vacuum will be filled and the situation will ease, but at the moment many reseller and integrator businesses are literally being held back simply because they can't find the right people.The problem is not helped by the fact that the UK education system is not producing people with the skills that are needed. Glynn Jones of Shiva says that being located in Scotland helps because the Scottish education system turns out engineers who can be taken straight from University, but agrees that generally most jobs require experience.