IT skills shortage costing Europe 'billions'

Europe is losing out on billions of dollars in investments because of a shortfall in qualified technology-oriented human resources. The European Commission is warning that 40 percent of European citizens suffer from "digital illiteracy" and that the skills shortage is slowing down the implementation of new projects. The European commissioner for information society and media, Viviane Reding, said it is no longer possible to waste the talents of millions of Europeans by leaving them out of the information society.

"Shortfalls of qualified ICT (information communications technology) practitioners slow down new ICT applications in the economy and draw away billions of euros of investment funds to dynamic emerging economies, where hundreds of thousands of new engineers are qualifying each year," Reding said in a statement. The Commission has called upon member states to tackle the deepening digital-skills crisis and will support a number of initiatives, launching its e-Inclusion initiative in 2008, which aims to halve digital illiteracy by 2010 by promoting better use of e-learning.

Bupesh Jain of Silicon.com reported from London.

[MaLvaDo39]

Here's what you do

Gut Windows out of the environment.
Install OS X and Linux, and actually cut down on IT staffing.

[ewsachse]

Wrong answer Mac & Linux troll

That is the stupidest, most naive solution for this problem.

[Barney79]

Let's hope the initiatives work this time...

Previous government initiated attempts at building up a pool of IT resources, particularly in the UK, seem to flood the job market with inexperienced "text book" techies who come through training courses, some of which are admittedly very good, and go into the industry with no real experience of the "real world" or any understanding of service management best practices. It's the oldest trick in the book in IT that you can make things run better if you do it properly first time and everytime. Although frustrating at times, a proper service management foundation and system control can cause dramatic reductions in costs and deployment times.

[Fireweaver]

Education needs addressing too

This is an excellent point.
The Tech World is essentially a trade skill industry. While getting a degree is important having real experience in the field is even more important.
What really needs to be addressed here is that Tech schooling needs to be combined with real-world apprenticeships. Otherwise the value of creating "paper techs" via education is greatly diminished.

[rcrusoe]

Of course there is a shortage

Do you really expect people to choose a career in a field where the majority of jobs are routinely exported to India, etc.?

[Sea of Cortez]

That is why US Dollar is in the Toilet compared to Euro

What a non-sense that there is an IT shortage in Europe and that it is resulting in Billions of Dollars of investment not going there. What a non-sense indeed. To see this is all you have to do is to look at the US Dollar that is falling into the Toilet compared to Euro. Note: Dollar is at an all time low against Euro. And nothing is a better indication of one economy doing better than the other than which currency is going down and which up compared to one another.

And the reason that Europe is doing so well compared to US and this article is a total lie, amongst other is that they have Universal Education and Health Care there. So you can get your BS and MS in Europe for free while same degrees in US will cost you about $100K and more.
So they keep getting healthier and more educated there, while Americans are getting sicker and less educated because unlike European our Taxes are wasted on a gargantuan Military and one necessary War after another.

[Hardrada]

Agreed

Well put. If I had a degree in an IT field I would move to Europe in a second and take advantage of their need. They would pay well and I would get to leave this **** hole of a country. In a short few years America has REALLY gone down the tubes. Some people are only just starting to see it. Most Americans still have their rose colored glasses on. Just look around and read the international news to see how bad off we really are.

[Sea of Cortez]

I meant to type "Un-necessary War"

Sorry. A typo.
I meant to type one "Un-necessary War" after another.

[USDecliningDollar]

Record number of Britons Leave the UK

Record numbers of Britons are leaving the country in search of a sunnier life abroad, the latest official population figures show.

Nearly 200,000 British-born citizens moved overseas last year, mostly to Australia, Spain and France - the highest number since current records began in 1991, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. In total 385,000 people quit the UK, as the trend was accelerated by a rise in foreigners returning to their home countries.

Article continues
Figures suggest that British people who move abroad are looking for two things: the sun and other Brits to share it with. But increasingly we are also becoming a nation of economic migrants, seeking a better job abroad.

[_eclectic_]

I think I see the light....

Wow, it just hit me. As an underpaid IT professional in the states, perhaps I could become......an H1B in Europe!!!!???? Yeah, that's the ticket. free vacations all the time, universal health care, 2:1 Euro vs Dollar, I can come back to the States and buy up things....Wow, what an insight! ThanX so much for this article. (Of course we understand that these articles are just "advertising" for large companies efforts to import cheaper H1B labor. But in this case, I could be one of them ;)

[NickH]

Yes, life is perfect here.

Free vacations? Er, no. But we get paid time off work (4-6 weeks usually) and about 9 national holidays.

2:1 Euro vs Doller. Yes, at the moment. But, half your income gets taken off you to pay for the healthcare etc. Then there's 17%-21% VAT (purchase tax) on pretty much everything. What costs $100 in the states usually costs ?100 here, irrespective of the exchange rate.

"back to the States and buy up things". Sure you can. And you'll pay huge import duties when you come back!

Probably the reason we've got no IT people is that everyone has some cushy retire-at-55 job-for-life as a civil servant, collecting endless taxes, used to pay for their jobs and gold plated pensions.

[NickH]

Corrections.

In the United Kingdom at least, university degrees are certain not free. Most students finish university in considerable debt.

Tax in the EU is generally higher than in the US, to pay for our health care systems.

Yes, American defence spending is huge - about $400billion. Next is the UK, at about $60billion. Russia is about the same, and China about $42billion.

[Cricker12]

supply and demand

As far as I know, the laws of supply and demand haven't been repealed yet. If there is a shortage, wages and benefits should go up to attract people into the profession. Job security would be a big draw also.

[fred dunn]

So Then There Is No Solution....

If most companies in Europe are following the US model then they will go on a hiring binge and get operations going then outsource anything not having to do with security.
It's ironic that C|Net had an article about an Indian IT outsourcing company having problems finding qualified people so they are opening up a branch in Atlanta Georgia.
Yet US companies are still lobbying Congress for more H1B Visas saying we don't have enough expertise here.
You just can't win as an IT worker in the private sector anymore.

[craigbla]

Why invest to be outsourced?

People aren't stupid - they know their income will be driven to nothing and their jobs will be sent to India, China and Russia. The companies sending the jobs to slave labor countries should have to pay to educate their domestic workers as partial compensation for economic treason.

[mercuryrising]

Companies are not there to pamper you

Learn the fact , companies work for people who invest in them and not for a dudhead like you , who works for them.

There are no slaves in atleast one of the country you mentioned. And you cannot take the high ground , since slavery was prevelant in your country and your forefathers were the slave drivers. Look in the mirror... and stop commenting nonsense.

[pr#6]

Non-sense logic

"...nothing is a better indication of one economy doing better than the other than which currency is going down and which up compared to one another."

Strength of a currency is not a direct indicator of economic strength. Money seeks safety, and when circumstances of various kinds alter the perception of safety in the eyes of investors, they move their money. So investors are not as hot to invest in the U.S. today as they were in the past due to sub prime mortgage woes and low interest rates, etc. Yet the U.S. economy still enjoys 1/2 the unemployment rate of Europe, and over the past five years, the U.S. economy has significantly outperformed the 13 European countries that use the euro.

I am not saying one has a better economic model than the other. But I am saying that your statement about currency value being a direct indication of economic strength is inaccurate.

[asdf]

liars

Yes all the unemployed programmers that have been driven out of IT by body shops like Tata, infosys and all the rest are just computer illiterates.

Th reality is, just like in the US, the business interests want unlimited immigration to drive the cost of labor down as close to zero as they can get it. IF they want more IT people, why not hire them? IN the 90s before companies got addicted to 3rd world labor rates. enrollment in IT boomed because people saw it as a way to get ahead.

Then companies lobbied to let millions of IT programmers in, and Americans couldnt' get jobs in their own country, thanks to the likes of othis sub-human scum bag
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/18/22435/0365" target="_newWindow">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/18/22435/0365</a>

But even as this degenerate schools American businesspeople how to destroy a free market and evade labor laws in the US, those same companies cry labor shortage.

These people are born liars. They lie about everything to everyone because that's what they are, liars.

The companies who pay their CEO hundreds of millions and claim that's the market rate also seek to destroy the wages a free market for labor would naturally produce by outsourcing and importing millions of workers.

Of course people will turn away from IT if there's no money in it. Let the market work, and we'll soon see people flooding into IT like we did in the 90s.

[charlweed]

Utter UTTER B.S.

Sure, One can expect the public relations androids to spout this nonsense. Employers are just trying to increase the supply of cheap IT labor, duh.

But shame on CNET for not providing some objective facts such as:
wage trends for IT employees
number of help-wanted IT ads
duration of unemployment for people with IT qualifications.

Do ANY of those show limited supply of IT workers in Europe?

Hell NO!