The impact of the October cuts may be more severe than anticipated in the public sector because there are insufficient ICT staff with the right skills to salvage the situation through better use of technology to preserve front-line service delivery at reduced expenditure.

That was the pessimistic view of some experts talking at last week's 360 Degree IT event in London, who fret there are too few IT entry-level people coming into the sector with the optimal mix of business and hi-tech savvy.

Some 150,000 people a year are recruited to the UK IT sector per year, education consultant with the Open University Tim Rault-Smith told the audience - but 40% of British employers say the level of business, non-technical and interpersonal skills of new entrants to be disappointing.

That's a problem if the Coalition's aims to make huge cuts from Government is matched by improved efficiencies in performance at both central and local government level, he said. Staff will need to hit the ground running in a very tough environment, he went on – pointing out that CBI data suggests some 62% of new IT entrants need to draw on business skills almost immediately they are in post.

“There's a gap between the skills new people come to the industry with and what they need from day one,” he concluded.

His University is one of several trying to work with the Sector Skills Council for Business and Information Technology, e-Skills UK, to provide a top-up qualification that could beef up new IT professional's business capability – the proposed e-Skills Professional Programme.

Things like this could also be useful for helping employees currently in IT “who are trapped by a glass ceiling” and frustrated they are unable break out into wider business management, Rault-Smith suggested.

Source: http://www.publictechnology.net/sector/central-gov/cuts-will-bite-worse-ict-people-will-struggle-talk-business