Where are all the IT skills?

We keep reading about the shortage of people with IT skills in the UK and the risks that shortage might present to our standing in the world.  Certainly, almost everyone I talk to is concerned about the difficulty they are having in attracting the right IT people to their organisations.  More and more of the outsource providers and consultancies seem to be constantly advertising for a range of people, typically now the focus seems to be on project and programme managers.  Are we all fishing in an ever decreasing pool ?

But wait, we also hear about entrepreneurs who are establishing new internet-based businesses and clearly have, and seem to be attracting, the very skills we seem to desire.  Where are we going wrong?  I'm told (reliably, I hope) by recruitment companies, that while money is important  - after all, who wants to work for less than they need to - the real attraction of an organisation is the opportunity to work on interesting projects which are at the forefront of technological developments.  So, are we too set in our ways?  Are the skills we think we need actually those of the 20th century?  Are we searching simply for a younger version of ourselves? 

I think it's time to take stock of our real needs, not just for today but for the future and to think about a completely different aspect of IT skills.  Are we communicating to these entrepreneurs in their space and in their language? 

The other thought is that now IT is such an ingrained part of our existence, are IT skills actually recognised as a separate item by those individuals?  We seem to want all of our staff, in whatever part of our businesses they work, to be computer-literate and to be able to use the systems and technologies we put before them.  Are we overlooking an obvious source of skill and a much larger pool of people to attract?  I think we are.

In thinking about how to deal with this, certainly for my team, we'll now be considering what skills we have within other parts of our organisation and how we can get to them.  We'll also be looking at how we best communicate with what we believe are a wealth of good skills out in the marketplace and how best we can offer them the interesting and innovative work they'll be eager to do.

Wish me luck.