the Labour Market Survey Report - Council of European ...

Probably the greatest challenge in this area arises from the widely-observed, growing, perceived
unattractiveness to young people of both genders of work as an IT Practitioner, as evidenced in
particular by the significant fall in applications from the most academically-able young people to
study engineering and IT courses in higher education. A recent study by Bruniaux, Hansen, Steedman,
Vignoles and Wagner (2000) reviews this situation in a number of countries, and confirms the problems
with student applicants in terms of quantity and/or “quality”.
Debate continues as to whether the technical aspects of IT Practitioner work require formal learning
through public education channels (in particular in tertiary education in Information Technology related
courses), or whether employers prefer (not least in the light of their higher average prior academic
achievement!) to recruit “good” graduates from non-technical degree subjects, who are subsequently
trained in some depth on the technical aspects of the work over their early months of employment.
However, whether the supply of new IT Practitioners is to come from university IT courses or from
any other education source, where the supply of young people is considered, certain realities of
the education -> working life transition need to be understood, and this transition has different
characteristics in different Member States. The European Centre for the Development of Vocational
Learning (CEDEFOP) has recently published the results of an extended study on this matter (CEDEFOP
2001), which, drawing on a common conceptual framework, covers the institutional characteristics of
national education systems, the beginning of the transition process, labour market entrants, and the
integration of young people into working life & community policies.
3.4 Experience with Relevant Initiatives
As will be seen, many national governments have introduced initiatives over recent years in response to
perceived shortages of ICT skills. A preliminary “inventory” of these is provided in an interim review by
the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), based on returns from its members in
16 countries (+EU as a whole), which is available on their website (www.witsa.org). These public policy
interventions have undoubtedly had an impact, but this has often turned out relatively small in relation
to the effects of market behaviour. Two rather significant national programmes have been the “SwIT”
initiative in Sweden and the “Bug-buster” training project within the UK, both of which have achieved a
level of useful IT training for tens of thousands of people within relatively short timeframes (see Annex F).
3.5 Roles of National and European Policy-Makers
The European Commission reviews Europe’s strategic position in relation to the rest of the world, and
initiates programmes to support the development of world class capabilities in the economic and other
domains, in particular to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness in relation to growing globalisation. The
budget for this is relatively modest, and thus it is important for the Commission to identify, with Member
States’ help, areas where national development work can contribute to achieving these world-class
standards, through upgrading the national supply of skills.
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| C E P I S I.T. PRACTITIONER SKILLS IN EUROPE | Section 3