It is no secret that skills shortages are a threat to the UK economy: professions reliant on maths, science and engineering graduates frequently struggle to find qualified candidates. Nowhere is the shortfall more acute than in IT, where BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT (formerly the British Computer Society) is warning of a crisis.

The IT workforce is set to grow at four times the rate of other professions, mainly in the creation of skilled jobs, until 2018. Yet already 43 per cent of employers report a lack of candidates. Together with telecoms, computing has the biggest strategic significance of any sector for the UK’s economic future. But with an ageing workforce and a dire shortage of new entrants to the profession, jobs are being outsourced to India and elsewhere.

Experts say that the problems start young, with children being put off IT at secondary, even primary school. “A lot of misperceptions are driven by school,” says Margaret Sambell, director of strategy at e-skills UK, the business skills council for IT. “Children think IT is extraordinarily boring, sitting around in a dark room writing code. It’s not like that at all.”

IT is at the heart of every business, and most of the work is about finding technological solutions to business problems. Half of IT professionals work in other industries, such as retail, for example, making it a doorway in to other sectors, Sambell says.

The council is a powerful group, with chief executives from all the big IT companies as well as major retailers among its members. To encourage children to consider IT, it works with role models from Sony, BT, the BBC and lastminute.com, among others.

E-skills mainly targets 14 to 19-year olds, as this is the age at which career aspirations crystallise and the IT option is often dismissed, Sambell says. Girls are one of the groups being targeted by the council to plug the workforce gap; research has found that girls seem to be put off IT at about the age of 13.

In a report, e-skills described the gender divide as “a significant and worsening issue”. Last year only 17 per cent of IT professionals were female. Women account for 15 per cent of IT degrees and only 10 per cent of A levels.

The biggest problem with the curriculum is ICT GCSE, which is “boring”, Sambell says. The new IT Diploma is a “vast improvement” but it will take time to catch on.

Dr Bill Mitchell, director of the Academy of Computing at BCS, agrees. “IT education in secondary schools is letting down our children. They are not getting a high quality education that equips them with an understanding of what computing is, other than using Word or Office.”

IT teachers are the least likely to have a specialist degree in their subject, mainly because IT professionals have the pick of options elsewhere. This means that many teachers cannot stretch the brightest pupils with what IT has to offer, he says.

Source:The Times Online
http://www.times online.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/student/article7110776.ece