UM - Majority of IT professionals want to upgrade skills to progress careers - but 41% want to leave IT

Jenny Williams
Tuesday 09 August 2011 17:26

The majority of IT professionals believe upgrading skills and qualifications is important to progressing their careers, according to research.

A survey of 2,200 UK IT professionals by recruitment consultancy Kelly Services showed 91% believe upgrading skills and qualifications is "extremely important" or "important" to career progression. But the survey also suggested almost half (41%) of respondents expect to switch careers out of IT in the next five years.

"As individuals take greater control of their careers in IT, there is a likelihood of employees moving in and out of the workforce for both professional and lifestyle reasons," said Dominic Graham, head of professional and technical services at Kelly Services.

The survey showed two-thirds of IT professionals (63%) aspire to a senior position. However, reasons given for avoiding executive roles included work-life balance (40%), concern about pressure and stress (28%), inadequate skills (10%) and lack of ambition (8%).

Separate research by recruitment firm Badenoch & Clark said that demand for C#, .Net and Java skills remains high as companies seek to upgrade existing systems. The report said companies are also migrating to Microsoft Exchange 2010 and Sharepoint.


"Employers require more third-line technical support as a result of the increase in companies migrating to Exchange 2010 and making use of Sharepoint," said Matt Gascoigne, operations director of IT at Badenoch & Clark.

"Upgrades to existing systems and new implementations are keeping IT recruitment activity bubbling away with only a small reduction in the number of permanent vacancies month on month".

Badenoch & Clark's research showed testing roles are also increasing.

"As employers move to an automated test environment more and more development projects are moving to the delivery stage. There are more vacancies for testing roles at all levels as a result," said Gascoigne.

In the public sector, NHS trusts are seeking Cerner and RiO experts to complete major projects, such as patient administration system upgrades and implementations.

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