Companies plan to give IT staff training

Many companies are planning to train their IT staff in light of a skills shortage in the industry.

A study by the National Computing Centre (NCC) found that the perceived skills shortage in the sector has widened, from a 4.2 per cent shortfall in people last year to 6.8 per cent this year.

Nearly three quarters (73 per cent) of employers who said they needed new skills plan on obtaining them by training existing staff.

NCC head of content Ian Jones said: "With some skills moving into shortage, employers should be planning and budgeting for how best to acquire these skills now. It is an unwelcome message but they should be prepared for the extra cost."

IT professionals with skills in Oracle, SAP, Microsoft.Net, web development, business analysis, and virtualisation will be in high demand over the coming couple of years, the report found.