Easing a skills' shortage

The nerdy image of the typical IT worker is wrong and deters females, says Ann Swain.

To some, the global slowdown seems to have finally solved the IT skills shortage. However, when the economy bounces back, we will again be caught fighting the problems caused by the UK's underproduction of skilled IT workers.

One solution has been to speed up the process of recruiting from overseas. However, this does not address the underlying problem that as a country, we are not making full use of our indigenous labour force.

Women comprise around a fifth of IT professionals. That probably won't shock you, but it should. It won't shock you because you have always thought of IT as a male domain. Ask yourself why you have that perception and you are beginning to see the problem and the possible solution.

As in many areas, the US is some way ahead of the UK - especially when it comes to getting women into high-ranking IT roles. Women comprise less than 10% of senior programmers in the UK, compared to around a third in the US, so there is much that can and should be done. With women making up almost half the UK workforce, equality is a matter of economic necessity.

Best business practice says companies should recruit from the largest pool of talent. The perennial discussion about skills shortages and the dearth of women in IT could be seen as the same issue.

Why do so few women enter the profession? Are they really discouraged by the stereotyping of the IT workforce as anoraks? The answer is yes. Women perceive jobs in IT as excessively complicated and not dynamic. If you ask a women to characterise a typical IT professional, she is likely to describe a young man with excess facial hair, sitting behind a computer all day munching pizza and guzzling Coke.

This view is far from accurate. Today's industry is remarkably diverse. IT is about people, and the successful IT manager will always have the user in mind. As an industry, IT has developed dramatically from the days when programmers wrote lines of code out of garages.

So fundamental is IT to the infrastructure of today's businesses that IT professionals now hold board-level posts. The government is trying to tackle the problem. The secretary for the department of trade and industry, Patricia Hewitt, has announced details of a strategy aimed at increasing the number of women employed in science, engineering and technology (SET).

The scheme is aimed at school-age girls, providing resources such as software, online advice and ambassadors who go into classrooms to encourage girls to consider Set careers. The department also launched ITbeat with pop star Gareth Gates (see opposite) in an attempt to lend some glamour to a subject most schoolgirls find a turn-off.

The second difficulty the industry needs to overcome is the promotion of greater flexibility. Not all women are interested in having children, but a number of women and men are looking to spend more time with their families. Contract work might seema solution, but the fact that fewer women work as contractors than as permanent employees suggests that this does not always work.

Companies use IT contractors because they deliver a specific technical skill to solve an immediate problem. The ideal contractor needs to be constantly updating skills. This can make life difficult for women to get back into the industry after even a short break. The government needs to give tax breaks on training for contractors to help workers keep abreast of developments. Contractors cannot offset training costs against their income. The department should also set targets for recruiting and retaining women in IT careers.

· Ann Swain is the chief executive of the Association of Technology Staffing Companies.