IT skills surveys show crisis deepens

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Surveys released by sector skills body, e-Skills UK and recruitment firm ReThink Recruitment suggest the IT skills gap is widening along geographical, as well as technology, lines.

The quarterly e-Skills UK report looking at demand and supply for IT skilled workers identified a shortage of senior programmers that it said was likely to worsen over the next six months.

The report stated: "Pinch points in the future are likely for recruiters seeking permanent staff for senior programmers with C#, VOIP, OSPF, PHP, Flash, Swing, .Net, Python and Prince."

But research by ReThink Recruitment has also found the concentration of demand for IT skilled workers in London has led to the capital claiming 36 per cent of new hires in the sector, despite only accounting for 12 per cent of the population.

John Butterfield, ReThink managing director told IT PRO a number of factors were setting the trend for more new IT hires in London than elsewhere in the UK.

He said heavy mergers and acquisition activity was driving demand in the financial services sector, while major local and central government projects were adding to demand direct from government or from the consultancies that have been appointed to work as contractors on these projects.

However, any calls to attract more young people into technology training is unlikely to meet this demand given the fact that these sectors are also looking to fill senior roles.

Butterfield said: "There is a huge drive for senior project and programme managers and business analysts. A lot of the lower level work is still going to India, but needs senior people back in the UK to check it if is its badly scoped, for example."

He said this demand is being filled internally, from the business side of companies. "They have the business application knowledge and find they can earn a lot more once they transfer to the IT side," he said.

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