The skills contradiction: IT pros laid off but positions still going begging?

The current economic slump is forcing some companies to cull their workforces drastically but IT departments are still crying out for appropriate skills. silicon.com's latest annual skills survey reveals with an alarming clarity the irony of the situation. Here Suzanna Kerridge asks whether the UK is suffering from a skills shortage or a skills gap.

Despite the majority of respondents to Skills Survey 2002 UK believing IT departments are laying off because of the economic slump, the same majority claim that - in their eyes - there is still a skills shortage.

The evidence seems to imply that a whole raft of jobs are out there waiting to be filled but the people flooding onto the employment market are not suitable to fill them.

The crux of problem seems to lie, as always, with training. Over 70 per cent of respondents claim organisations need to devote more time to in-house training.

"There seems to be a Mexican stand-off when it comes to training. Employers are worried that the more training they give their staff then the higher the risk they will be poached but employees are asking for more to improve their skills base," said Tim Conway, director of industry affairs at the CSSA.

Web-related skills, he said, are in greatest demand but the shortest supply.

"Languages such as J2EE, XML and other ecommerce-related skills are sadly lacking and this skills gap will continue unless employees get more training," Conway continued.

The problem, said Andrew Harvey-Price, policy advisor at the e-skills NTO, is that there are a lot of professionals in the market with a lot of specialist skills but employers want a more rounded pool of knowledge.

"Employers want jacks of all trade who are easy to train and can change disciplines as quickly as technology changes."

The US terrorist attacks on 11 September were used by many as an excuse for lower than expected financial statements. The subsequent economic downturn has also been used by many organisations as a reason to sort the organisational chaff from the wheat.

The CSSA's Convoy added: "Employers are trying to reduce the cost of the IT workforce and many are using the current economic downturn as an opportunity to get rid of expensive contractors or duplicate staffing requirements."

Contractors are often the first to be shown the door in a financial downturn as they are seen to be more expensive than permanent staff. In addition it is harder and more costly to make permanent staffers redundant.

The result, said Harvey-Price, is a market flooded with IT professionals looking for a job but without always the skills to find a match.

"One would expect in these economic conditions employers could pick up all the skills they want but that's just not the case," he added.

Once again, a lack of training is the crux of most companies' problems. But despite being able to identify this problem a worryingly low number of employers are actually offering training to their employees. There is a skills gap which continues, even if there is no shortage of out of work IT pros with various skills.

For more analysis see:
http://www.silicon.com/skillssurvey2002