About the event
SDS careers advisers joined with fellow careers professionals
from further and higher education to hear about the challenges the
ICT (information and Communications Technology) sector faces in
attracting suitably skilled recruits at a Labour Market Information
event in Edinburgh last month.
The Director of Oracle in Scotland, Caroline Stuart, and
Microsoft's Education Business Manager for Scotland, Steven Grier,
were two senior industry representatives who gave of their time to
address delegates, while workshop sessions were supported by Dell,
IBM, HP, Cisco, JP Morgan and Innovation Digital.
In all, some 50 delegates listened to a series of fascinating
presentations at Microsoft in Edinburgh including one by the
Director - Scotland of e-skills UK, Michael Kowbel, who indicated
that Scotland's growing ICT sector will have a requirement for
approximately 40,000 new IT and Telecoms professionals over the
next five years.
The speed of technological change in the ICT sector was cited as
one of the main reasons formal education sometimes struggles to
keep pace with developments, but both Caroline and Steven had some
very helpful advice on paving the way to employment in this
exciting, dynamic, well-paid industry.
What attendees said
Mhairi Galashan from Clydebank careers centre commented, "These
events are a rare yet crucial opportunity to meet and speak to
employers."
Carol Macdonald a careers adviser at the University of Edinburgh
added, "It was an excellent event, which gave a really good
overview of the industry, the amazingly fast pace of change and the
issues to be addressed. It was great that it was supported by so
many company representatives who spoke so enthusiastically about
the opportunities they can offer and their willingness to get
involved in potential initiatives."