Ask the experts

Our panel of IT leaders provide their opinions and ideas on major issues affecting technology in business. This month, we take a special feature-length look at the future of IT skills.

Is it the end of computer science? UK companies can now pick up IT services cheaper overseas ­ so where does this leave graduates with a surfeit of technology skills? Should UK students stop studying computer science and concentrate on business? Contemporary technology management, after all, needs students to understand financial processes.

Computer science underpins many aspects of innovation, research and development. Many UK universities run leading computer science courses, producing technical specialists that have a vital role to play in the future success of the UK.

At the same time, the impact of globalisation means there is a growing demand for business-oriented, customer-focused IT professionals that understand how to make the most of technology for business success. It is not a simple choice between computer science or business. Today’s IT professional increasingly requires business skills as well as leading-edge technical skills.

The success of the Information Technology Management in Business (ITMB) degree, which combines technical skills with project management, business and communications expertise, demonstrates that there is a clear demand for such a blend of skills among employers, universities and students. Applicant numbers for a place on an ITMB degree this year were up to four times that for traditional IT degrees; and about 30 per cent of students on the courses are women, compared with just 17 per cent for more traditional IT degrees.

There is a further issue, in that it is not always clear to employers what skills and knowledge new graduates bring from their degree course. Through the Catalyst programme, we will be working with employers and universities to ensure employers understand what capabilities graduates develop from different types of IT-related degree courses. We will also be encouraging curriculum development in areas of industry growth.

Karen Price, chief executive, e-Skills UK

I have been at the forefront of driving the agenda that says: “There is no such thing as an IT project, only business change projects enabled by new technology systems.” That said, the importance of computer science is undiminished.

We still need to develop full engineering approaches to software development, drawing on formal methods, in order to transform quality and reliability. The aim must be to draw together the best of science and engineering, within a rigorous discipline of computer science, and to link this to best practice in investment in people and process.

Such an investment provides a holistic approach to properly scoped and budgeted business change. We will not solve our productivity gap in the deployment of IT systems if we fail to attract the coming generation of computer scientists and fail to resource their continued training and development.

Professor Jim Norton, senior policy adviser, Institute of Directors and Chairman, IET IT Sector Panel

UK students should understand the kind of organisation they are keen to work for and carefully consider whether opting for a pure computer science course will make them appealing to such an employer ­ or whether they are effectively restricting their future employment options and earning potential.

IT leaders participating in The Corporate IT Forum are increasingly looking to employ people who are business people first and technology people second. There will always be a need for the deep technical knowledge, but we are seeing CIOs making more use of outsourced and offshore suppliers. The high demand area is for people with business-based skills who understand the commercial application of IT.

Ollie Ross, head of research, The Corporate IT Forum

Computer science drop-out rates and a decline in student in-take should raise a big red flag for businesses and universities. The issue is one of perception. Technology commoditisation and the rise of offshoring cause potential graduates to view a career in IT as neither stable nor lucrative ­ especially the sort of IT that most computer science courses currently teach.

Universities have a responsibility to make the subject matter more compelling and aligned to business requirements. Good technology management increasingly calls for business acumen that spans communication, financial and strategic skills as well as providing a strong technology component in the mix.

Euan Davis, senior analyst, Forrester Research

For many years, the parallel message for CIOs has been to improve their business knowledge and relationships with internal stakeholders, while selectively sourcing to external suppliers. This has provided many skills challenges for organisations, particularly those that were previously inward-facing.

Most organisations have taken on board the need to build business analysis and account management skills. Although these skills remain scarce at the top levels, there is a greater focus on business change as represented in SFIA (Skills Framework for the Information Age) and new degree courses.

A further skills shortage has been on the technical side in specifying and managing the programming work of offshore staff. Many organisations have found to their cost that a high degree of detail is needed and that it is important to quality assure the outputs. There is a real risk that the UK loses its technical skills at the same time as overseas costs increase, resulting in both management and cost disadvantages.

Dr Sharm Manwani, Henley Management College

n Modern managers do need to know about wider issues, such as the green agenda, finance, and risk management, But people will ignore IT knowledge itself at their peril. IT today is more sophisticated than ever before, especially in relation to communications ­ and someone somewhere needs to make sense of it.

At Aston University, we are running many increasingly popular computer science degrees, and we have absolutely no problems finding our graduates employment after our courses. Many of the graduates become successful IT directors, and they have a very significant contribution to make to our society.

If anything. any management development programmes ­ such as MBAs for budding managers ­ should ensure IT is at the core of their thinking. Sorry, the idea of IT directors with no knowledge of technology is as daft as finance directors with no understanding of accounting practice.

Fahri Zihni, ICT director, Aston University

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