The Sector Skills Agreement for IT

Background - IT skills in the UK

The need for broader, deeper and continually changing IT skills impacts on not only the 1.2 million people in the IT professional workforce, but also the 4 million managers and leaders who need to understand how to realise the potential of IT, and the 20 million people who use IT in their day-to-day work.

Based on world-class research conducted in partnership with Gartner Consulting - IT Insights - which included more than 3200 employer interviews, extensive assessment of current and future skills requirements, and a ten year forecast of UK employment trends, e-skills UK has articulated the issues that the UK faces.

Employment in the IT industry is forecast to grow at 5 to 8 times the UK average over the next ten years. For the IT professional workforce that means 180,000 new people for new and replacement jobs every year. Yet in 2002 only 8,800 new graduates entered this sector within six months of graduation, and only 20% of these were women. In the general workforce 90% of new jobs require IT user skills, a quarter of businesses lack employees with the right IT skills now, and 7.6 million employees need to increase their skills to meet growing demand over the next three years.

Last modified: 12 Dec 2006