Lack of IT skills holding back Midlands

14:19 4th August 2008

A shortage of IT skills is preventing many employers in the Midlands from creating virtual offices, new research has claimed.

Independent think tank, The Centre for Future Studies, highlighted that the failure to adopt flexible working strategies could be restricting the region's long-term technological development.

The report states that despite four out of five small and medium business enterprises (SMEs) offering employees some form of flexible working, few are fully integrating them to create a virtual office.

Sixty-two per cent of SME's also said that they lack the appropriate IT skills and training to properly exploit their existing systems.

"The future of competitive business for SMEs in the West Midlands relies on employers and employees having a good grasp of technology," insists the report.

The Centre for Future Studies is an organisation that specialises in foresight and forecasting programmes that enable organisations to plan for the future.

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