The UK economy depends on the vitality of the IT professional workforce. Yet fewer and fewer young people are studying technology or choosing a career in IT. We must take action urgently to turn this tide.

In today’s global, knowledge-driven economy, technology has become critical to competitive advantage and business success in every sector. A recent European Commission report tells us that technology is now driving 50 per cent of the EU’s growth (i2010 - Annual Information Society Report 2007, 30 March 2007, European Commission).  In the UK, the IT industry is growing at five to eight times the national average and around 150,000 entrants to the IT workforce are required each year

However, every year fewer young people choose to study technology-related subjects at school and university, and every year fewer of these technology graduates choose to embark on a career in IT. 

Between 2001 and 2006 there was a drop of 43 per cent in the number of students taking A-levels in computing (from 10,913 in 2001 to 6,233 in 2006). The uptake of IT-related degrees almost halved between 2001 and 2005 (from 27,000 in 2001 to 14,700 in 2005); with a mere 15 per cent of applications coming from women. Of the UK’s IT graduates, only around three in 10 choose to enter IT occupations upon graduation. 

There is a mismatch with the needs of the economy that urgently needs to be addressed.

To begin with, we need to consider what appears to be driving these downward trends.  There is a growing chasm between technology-related education at school and university and what employers actually need.  At school level, most IT courses focus on IT user skills, with little of relevance to today’s IT careers.  We need courses that bring out the excitement and relevance of IT to modern-day lives and that transform the attitudes of young people, particularly women, towards careers in IT.

Furthermore, at university level, many IT courses focus on computer science, often with little business content. There is an urgent need for more university-level courses to combine IT and business, with creative and stimulating programmes of study that enable students to develop the full range of skills required for a modern career in IT. 

Taking action works.  The Information Technology Management for Business (ITMB) degrees, developed by e-skills UK through a new partnership between employers and higher education, will be running at 13 UK universities by the end of this year.  These innovative degrees give equal weighting to technical, business, project management and personal skills – a mix seen by employers as providing the best foundation for a successful career in IT. Application numbers are high, and include an encouraging number of young women. In addition, increasing numbers of employers want to be closely involved with the degrees through lectures, projects and work placements.

This is just one example. We would like to encourage many more employers and universities will collaborate to reform IT degrees into challenging business-oriented, people-focused courses that attract the most capable candidates and prepare them well for an exciting modern career in IT.