IT immune to immigration rules

12:39 18th September 2008

Employers will not find it any harder to get the IT skills they need when new immigration rules come into force in November, IT industry bodies have claimed.

The Institute for Management of Information Systems (IMIS) has argued that any shortages currently being experienced in the industry are a result of the failure to cross-train existing staff, not over restrictive immigration laws.

Under the new rules, skilled workers arriving in the country from outside the European Union must achieve a minimum points threshold before being allowed to work in the UK.

Migrants with skills on the shortage list are allocated more points than those not under the criteria, which could affect the technology industry as IT has recently been removed from the register.

Phillip Virgo, strategic advisor for the IMIS, said: "There are a lot of British people who are unable to get jobs in the industry because companies have being unwilling to cross-train them to do tasks they are perfectly capable of doing."

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