Skills gap emerges

With the UK technology sector as a whole recording its best growth performance for almost a decade this year, City Lifeline believes this gap is only set to grow and is even causing debate in UK government, with Ed Miliband stating that the IT industry is being 'let down' by the current skills shortage.

The need for IT skills has been further highlighted with David Cameron’s recent push for international technology experts to be given fast-tracked visas to enable them to work in the UK and boost the country’s work landscape, warning that this has now surpassed the UK border and has become an international issue:

Roger Keenan, managing director of City Lifeline warns, “The increasing skills gap that we are currently facing could have a huge impact on business growth. To expand and flourish, organisations need to increase their work force. However, with the current skills gap, any growth plans that businesses have will be halted.

“For this potentially very damaging phase to come to an end, we must look to invest more in training. It is no secret that technology changes by the day and so we must nurture talent to keep up with this constant progression. If we fail to invest in education and training, UK businesses will cease to develop and in turn, their customers will suffer.”

With the UK now facing an economic upturn, it is feared that the skills shortage is preventing UK businesses from taking advantage of the recovery.

In January 2014, figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed the UK economy grew by 1.9 per cent in 2013, its strongest rate since 2007. However, 146,200 job vacancies (22 per cent) were unfilled last year because of inadequate skills, compared with 91,400 (16 per cent) two years earlier.