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

• Around one in ten establishments thought that fewer than half the ICT professionals working for
them were fully proficient in their current role, although few were able to specify exactly which
skills were missing;
• A lack of experience of new technologies was given as the principal reason for shortfalls in
proficiency, and was cited by 2/3 of establishments suffering “skills gaps”;
• Over a quarter of establishments in the ICT supply sector had vacancies at the time of
interview;
• Just over half of vacancies for ICT Professionals were believed to require 2 or more years’
experience;
• Some 9,000 establishments (6% of all larger than 5 employees) reported hard-to-fill vacancies
at the time of the survey, and nearly four out of five of these viewed this as arising from either
low numbers of applicants with the required skills, lack of work experienced required or a lack of
qualifications demanded by the employer;
• Just under half of all establishments employing ICT professionals had no formal training budget
or plan;
• On-the-job training was the most commonly cited method of training provision, with just over
one third of all establishments providing this;
• Of the 908,000 ICT professionals identified, it was estimated that some 480,000 (53%) had not
taken any off-the-job training over the previous year, and 58% had none planned for the coming
year;
• Just over a quarter of establishments reported they had increased the number of directly
employed ICT Professionals during the 12 months prior to the survey;
• It was estimated that, for the UK as a whole over the following year, the following (additional)
workers would be needed:
- 85,000 “Development Professionals”
- 55,000 “Internal Operations Professionals”
- 32,000 “External Customer Services Professionals”
- 19,000 “ICT Sales and Marketing Professionals”
- 16,000 “Strategy and Planning Professionals”;
• Local newspapers were reported as being the most commonly used medium for recruiting (used
by 45% of establishments);
• Three quarters of establishments needing additional ICT Professionals over the following year
would be looking for those trained/experienced in the skills required.
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