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Fewer pupils studying ICT
01 September 2010
With fewer pupils studying ICT, the industry could face a skills shortage in the future, it has been claimed.
Gerry McLaughlin, a spokesman for ITContractor.com, suggested that there is likely to be a shortage of qualified workers once the economy begins to recover.
"The number of people taking IT degrees has been falling to a fraction of the levels seen is the late nineties and early noughties, so there is not a great bank of IT-literate people waiting to come into the profession over the next few years," he commented.
Mr McLaughlin claimed that IT will prove to be a lucrative and safer profession over the next decade.
The information age "has arrived" and those working in the IT industry are "at the vanguard of it", he added.
Figures published last week show that the number of students taking GCSE ICT was down by 17 per cent this year, compared to 2009.