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IT vendor qualifications could open doors

With levels of unemployment in the UK gradually starting to improve, now could be the time for anyone in search of a career change to make their next move. The question is, which career path do you follow?

Throughout the recession, it has been evident that demand for IT qualifications remains high. IT recruitment firm CWJobs indicated just recently that the number of vacancies in the sector increased by four per cent between the fourth quarter of 2009 and first three months of this year. The company took this as a sign that the country is emerging from its economic problems, while also illustrating that employers continue to be in search of workers with IT competency.

"We hope these findings signal the start of re-investment in IT," commented Richard Nott of CWJobs. More than half (52 per cent) of the positions advertised on the site required applicants to have SQL, C and C# programming skills, while .Net, Java and SQL capabilities also proved popular among employers.

With the country facing spending cuts, it appears that it is not only desirable for recruits to have IT skills at the moment, but almost essential. Industry experts attending the 360IT conference earlier this month were informed that as firms and organisations face tighter budgets, they will need people in IT jobs to help make efficiency savings, Computing revealed.

"The coalition government wants to make huge cuts from government departments. It is quite obvious that some of the efficiencies they want can only come about through IT investment," education consultant Tim Rault-Smith is quoted as saying. He noted that around 40 per cent of employers see the skills of their applicants as below their company's required standard, suggesting people need to do more to gain IT qualifications that will help them stand out from the crowd.

"There is a yawning gap between the skills new people come to the industry with and what they need from day one," Mr Rault-Smith confirmed. With 150,000 people a year estimated to be applying for jobs in the IT sector, he stressed the need for new entrants to improve their portfolios as best they can.

It is not just companies that are in search of IT skills, as it seems that students are also keen to pursue these avenues through further education. The Guardian UK 300, which claims to offer the largest-ever overview of both employers and graduate recruits, shows there is a growing demand among those in their early-20s to take up the profession.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, men are generally keener than their female counterparts to make an impression in IT jobs, with the likes of IBM and Apple featuring in their list of top ten desirable employers. However, they did not even appear in the top 20 for girls.

Recent figures published by publicservice.co.uk revealed that the talent pool for professional IT jobs needs to increase fourfold over the next ten years if it is to satisfy the sheer number of vacancies needed. It estimated that around half a million new IT and telecoms experts alone will be needed to plug the employment gap over the next five years.

Karen Price, chief executive of e-skills UK, told the website that youngsters are simply not being given the motivation to pursue IT-related subjects at school. Instead, it is later in life that they realise the value of IT vendor qualifications and how valuable they are in a business environment.

The latest e-skills bulletin from January to March showed that there has been a decline in the number of IT-ready candidates for jobs, meaning recruiters found it increasingly difficult to find people to fill their jobs. As a result, advertised pay rates rose by nine per cent in a bid to entice professionals into new roles. Over the past three quarters, a number of roles in particular are being advertised time and time again, including senior business and test analysts, systems developers, software and programming managers and development team leaders.

Even amid times of political and financial uncertainty, the need and uptake of IT skills is evidently still important. With details of spending emerging all the time, businesses are keen to become more efficient through the use of IT systems to minimise the impact, giving those with IT skills plenty of opportunity to capitalise on such opportunities.