Wowgloucestershire – job sector factsheet Prospects 2012 ©
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: CURRENT JOB MARKET
· The IT industry is extremely important in the UK – for instance, Britain has the largest e-learning industry in Europe and one of the largest games industries in the world
· There are estimated to be well over a million IT professionals. Around half of them work in IT companies. The rest work in various sectors, such as finance (although there are fewer opportunities than before because of the economic problems)and retail (the larger supermarketsrun IT graduate trainee schemes)
· The public sector – hospitals, museums, educational institutions, local councils, national government offices, etc – also employs IT professionals, although far fewer than in the private sector
· In addition, millions of non-IT professionals use computers at work
· Call centres, for instance,such as those used by insurance firms or travel companies, employ workers with IT skills. However, advanced IT skills are only needed if the job is providing computer support to callers
· Many of the major international computer firms have officesin the UK, especially in London, but there arealso lots of smallercompanies. According to eSkills,around 100,000 businesses in the UK offer IT and telecom products
· The IT workforce is well qualified – around 60% have a higher education qualification
· IT degrees, however, are often not required. Even for IT graduate trainee roles in computer firms, many employers will consider any subject provided a high class of degree (at least a 2:1) is obtained. People with non-IT degrees are sometimes thought to have skills considered to be lacking by some in the IT industry (such as interpersonal skills, communication skills and business skills)
· Competition for IT work comes from overseas: India, for instance, produces many IT graduates and increasing numbers of entry-level roles in the computer industry (such as end user support worker, and programmer) are ‘outsourced’ there and in other countries
· Young people and women are vital to the continued growth and success of the industry – they are currently under-represented both on IT courses and in the industry itself
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: FUTURE TRENDS
· The IT worker for the future needs to be multi-skilled – with a mixture of technical skills combined with strong business and communication skills e.g. customer handling, sales and marketing, finance and accounting
· Most jobs in the IT industry will be in high level occupations e.g. for managers, professionals andversatiletechnicians
· With the growing threat of hacking and industrial espionage, qualified professionals with security or forensic expertise are likely to be in short supply
· Other shortage technical skills areas are likely to include networking and web design
· Job losses are likely to continue in administrative, clerical and secretarial occupations
· Workers who use computer skills in their everyday jobs will be expected to increase their skills to an advanced level; in some cases they will take on areas of IT work previously carried out by IT specialists
· The self-employed/freelance workers (common in parts of the industry) will need to become even more adaptableregarding the skills they offer and their ability to work with a wide range of customers e.g. they will need to have a variety of computer programming skills
· With the IT industry changing so fast, all employees will need to be prepared to keep up to date with the changes, especially those regarding social media and social networking (increasingly important for the way businesses communicate with their customers)
· The trend forsome employers to ‘outsource’ their IT jobs to specialist computer contractors in this country, rather than continue to employ them themselves, is likely to continue if the cost benefits are shown
· According to the Guardian, future jobs could include avatar design-security consultant (who designs, creates and protects the virtual you), a personal bot (robot) mechanic (who will fix robotic domestic assistants when they go wrong) and powered exoskeleton engineer (who designs wearable robots that could protect and assistsoldiers, rescue workersand anyone else working in dangerousconditions)
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: THE PICTURE IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE
· There are plenty of employers in Gloucestershire whose staff use IT skills on a daily basis. The public sector(e.g. Gloucestershire Counciland Cheltenham Borough Council) is traditionally a large employer of such workers. Competition for such jobs is strong, however
· Private sector employersof admin workers (who oftenrequire good knowledge of Microsoft Office, especially Word and Excel) include insurance and travel/tour companies. Some, especially those involved with finance,will also employ IT professionals
· Computer shops, which may require staff with a technical background, tend to be based in town centres
· Technical employers (e.g. those connected to engineering) often require high level IT skills
· Cirencester is a ‘hotspot’ for computer/IT companies
· According to the National STEM Centre (science, technology, engineering and maths), IT skills are one of the shortage skills highlighted by employers in the South West
Examples of information technology employers in Gloucestershire
· Computer/technology shops - e.g. in Gloucester, Ad Computing, Comet, Currys Digital, Eastgate Computers, Maplin, PC World
· GCHQ (government department),Cheltenham
· VFB (tour operator headquarters),Cheltenham
· Endsleigh (insurance), Cheltenham
· Ageas (insurance), Gloucester
· Star Technology Services, Barnwood
· Charteris (business and IT consultancy), Northleach
· Equinox (technical services and repair), Tewkesbury
· University of Gloucestershire
· UCAS (education applications), Cheltenham
· London General Insurance (The Warranty Group), Forest of Dean
· St James's Place (wealth management)
· Cirencester Hardware.com (IT services), Cirencester
· Zycko (IT services), Cirencester
· Tinglobal (IT services), Cirencester
· Apex Computers, Cirencester
· Commercial Group (IT services), Cheltenham
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: FINDING OUT MORE
www.e-skills.com/
e-skills is the Sector Skills Council for business and information
www.e-skills.com/careers
e-skills careers pages including videos about IT careers
www.bcs.org/careers
The Chartered Institute for IT
www.imis.org.uk/
Institute for the Management of Information Systems
www.iap.org.uk/
Institution of Analysts and Programmers
www.ncc.co.uk/
The National Computing Centre
www.setwomenresource.org.uk/
UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology
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