The Looming Skills Shortage
The Looming Skills Shortage
Computing has an immense impact on modern life. The job prospects are excellent and the field is rigorous, intellectually vibrant, and multi-faceted. Yet, computing is in danger of disappearing from schools, with a critical skills shortage developing. A recent study by the UK Council of Professors and Heads of Computing illustrates the problem: it predicts that demand for IT professionals will increase by up to 15% in the next eight years, while the number of students aiming for jobs in the industry has fallen by 50% since 2001. They further identified:- The number of pupils studying Computing at GCE Level has fallen every year since an all time high in 2003
- GCE computing students fell by 48.6% from 2001 to 2007 (10,913 down to 5,610)
- GCE computing students fell by 33.9% from 2004 to 2007 (8,488 down to 5,610)
- The IT labour market is set to grow by 163,000 from 2007 to 2016 (from 1,069,000 up to 1,232,000).
- 179,800 appointments are made each year in the IT labour market, the majority (78.5%; 141,300) of which will go to "new entrants"? (people who are not currently in the IT labour market).
- Of this annual requirement of 141,300, 26,800 will be joining direct from education
- In 2005, an IT 'Skill-Shortage Vacancy' was experienced by 5% of all employers. This equates to 28% of all employers with a vacancy
- 38% of IT Managers have a technical skill gap, as do 12% of Networking Staff, 10% of Programmers, and 10% of PC Support Staff.
- It is crucial to understand that technical staff and managers are the two areas where the largest employment growth will take place over the coming years.
- A technical skill gap amongst such people is a serious problem.
- UK university applications to read Computer Science are down over 60% since 2000.
