November 2007

Opinion is almost split down the middle as to whether there is an IT skills crisis. Almost half (48 per cent) of those surveyed for Silicon.com research believe there is a skill crisis in the IT industry, while the other half thought not.

45 per cent of the 721 respondents said they are unable to fill IT jobs in their business, up from 37 per cent last year.

Similarly, in another piece of research, conducted by Pardo Fox on behalf of Global Knowledge, 51 per cent of IT professionals believe there is a skills gap. Almost half think skills shortages are having a significant impact on their department’s effectiveness but 23 per thought there is no significant impact.

On-the-job training was rated as important by 85 per cent of respondents, compared with 67 per cent for informal training, and 61 per cent for formal training. Only 22 per cent attached any importance to their university or college course.

The Silicon.com survey showed that programming languages such as Java, C variants, HTML and XML are in shortest supply in the workplace for the fifth year in a row, followed by web services, SOA skills, such as J2EE and .NET, and then IT management skills and database expertise.

The IT-related soft skill in shortest supply continues to be project management, with leadership skills also proving difficult to locate. 62 per cent of Silicon.com respondents said it is important to have both business and technical skills and 67 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that business skills are key.

Just 18 per cent of respondents think technical skills are the most important to IT success.
Given the last figure, is there any need for concern that the numbers taking A level computing in 2007 fell to 5,610 from 6,233 in 2006? A level ICT examination numbers also dropped this year to 13,360 from 14,208 last year?