News Room
This page carries specific Enliten IT news items and any general information that we feel will be of use to our clients.
General Interest
IT Skills gap back (Feb 08)
IT skills gap issue has resurfaced as student numbers fall. The National Computing Centre (NCC) claims the skills shortage is at its highest level for a decade. Nearly 40% of respondents cited recruitment and retention issues, up from 29% last year. Skills in Oracle, SAP, .Net and VMware will be among those in the most demand over the next two years, the NCC added.
The report comes just weeks after the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) expressed concerns after a survey by e-Skills UK revealed a 50% slide in IT students (CRN, 30 January).
Gartner predicts IT skills gap will create a crisis (Feb 08)
The analyst firm claimed that the current shortage is different from the skills gap that emerged in the dotcom era, as it affects all areas of the IT industry and not just specific technical skills. Gartner says there is a real shortages of people with general qualifications, experience and business insight. The focus is on understanding and managing business processes and technology, skills which take time to mature.
E-skills highlights skills shortage (Jan 08)
The IT and Telecoms Insights 2008 predicted that the UK will need more than 140,000 new IT and Telecoms professionals per year over the next five years, with most needing to be trained to a high level, half are expected to be experts from other fields, and one in five will be hired directly from education. Source ITweek.
Commons Education and Skills committee critisise "train to gain" (Sep 07)
The government's flagship Train to Gain programme is "too bureaucratic" and overly complex, according to a House of Commons committee. Click here to read the report in full.
UK Does well in Survey - e-skills uk (Aug 07)
The UK provides considerably more training for IT professionals than most other European countries, according to findings published in the latest e-skills Bulletin.
Around one in four IT professionals in the UK (26%) received training in the preceding month, against a European average of around one in six (15%). The data is drawn from Eurostat research covering the original group of 15 EU member states.
Companies Fail to Retrain Staff - CIPD (Jun 07)
A new report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that nearly four fifths of organisations struggled to hold onto their staff in 2006. Are you investing in and re-training your staff? Click here to find out more..
Employers finding it more difficult to find skilled staff - Chamber of Commerce (Apr 07)
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) skills finding shows a 50% increase in the number of employers reporting difficulties recruiting staff with the right skills. Employers are frustrated that the existing system does not equip young people with the right skills for the business workplace. Click here to find out more..
This message was echoed by Sir Digby Jones (former CBI director-general) speaking at the BCC annual conference. He called for businesses to work more closely with their Sector Skills Councils to drive forward the development of economically valuable skills.
IT Training Magazine - All Change! (Apr 07)
The BCS has taken over publishing of IT Training Magazine from Haymarket Media. The new re-vamped magazine will now appear quarterly and will be sent to it's circa 13,000 readership. The magazine is generally regarded as the staple diet of anyone within a training role within the UK.
British Computer Society - New Specialist Training Group (Mar 07)
The BCS has launched an Information and Technology Training Specialist Group its members involved in training. Objectives include raising awareness and knowledge of training issues, opportunities, best practices, the role of the Institute of IT Training (IITT) and raising visibility of IT trainers, the IITT and the BCS as a whole.
IT Pros Still Don’t Like e-Learning (Feb 07)
The IT Skills Research report on Learning Preferences Survey has just been published, and its findings underline the antipathy towards e-learning by IT professionals’. When asked in 2002 about their preferred learning method, 81% of IT professionals chose instructor-led training. By 2004, with a modest rise in blended learning, the ILT vote had slipped to 74%. But in 2006 attitudes have hardened further, with a record 84% now stating a preference for ILT.
E-skills UK releases new research (Feb 07)
E-skills UK, the Sector Skills Council for IT and telecoms, has released its latest Research findings on the sector and workforce. Click here to find out more..
Press Releases
Enliten IT and Rhema Group announce strategic partnership (Dec 06)
Human resource development and IT training merge to provide clients with a full training portfolio. To read more on this story click here....