Somewhat worryingly, the UK seems to be falling lower down the world league table where gender equality is concerned. This week the World Economic Forum published its annual report on the global gender gap showing that the UK is now ranked 13th out of 130 countries, down from 11th last year and 9th in 2006 - leapfrogged by other EU states and surprisingly, Sri Lanka. 

The biggest decline in performance was in the ranking for equal pay, where the UK dropped 20 places to number 81 this year. The reality is that, almost forty years after the Equal Pay Act was introduced in this country, women working full time across the UK earn on average 17% less an hour than men. In the technology industry the situation is tougher, with women facing a pay gap of around 23%. This is reinforced by the findings of Intellect’s Perceptions of Equal Pay 2008 survey, which found that the majority of women working in the technology industry either do not believe that their pay is comparable to their male colleagues, or simply do not know.

There is clearly more work to be done if the UK is to reduce the pay gap and improve its position in next year’s world league table. The forthcoming Equality Bill provides an excellent opportunity to undo the causes of pay discrimination and increase women’s current earnings. And here at Intellect we are working in conjunction with the BCS and e-skills UK on a ‘women in IT scorecard’ which will provide a robust evidence base and analysis of the situation for women in the IT industry. The launch is expected in January, so watch this space.

By Kate Whitehead, Programme Executive

Sex and Power.  It certainly grabs you as a title, but last week's report makes for some frustrating reading.  For anyone who believes that the best should reach the top, this report indicates the opposite. Not only did the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) research show a decline in representation of women in eight areas including cabinet ministers, newspaper editors, judges and heads of professional bodies, the eight positions which did show growth grew on average less than 1%. 

For years women have been restricted at work by glass ceilings, glass cliffs, sticky floors, and now concrete ceilings.  From this report it seems that all the policy, legislation, campaigning and media attention is not changing the cultural barriers that are holding back over 14.3million women in work.  It has been described as a ‘snail’s pace’ of change and ultimately this is not enough.  For example, in the technology industry only 16% of the workforce are women, and of these 61% fall under the title of database administrator - a long way from senior positions.

The stagnation of women in positions of power shows that the ‘softly softly’ approach is not working and that we need a firm, strong approach to breaking these barriers.  In denying women of merit opportunities and equality of work we’re ultimately holding the economy back through the missed opportunities of innovation, talent and experience.

The report calls for improved flexible working - and this will certainly help - but it is a change of attitude that is ultimately needed.  Flexible working is not just for women. It is increasingly a way of working in a modern, technology driven society that enables work-life balance for both men and women.  Until companies offer this and other ‘equality’ policies across their organisation we will not see the changes business and government pay lip service to.

There has been a lot of work done on equal pay, but too much is in theory not practice.  Equal Pay Audits play a large part in providing transparency around pay and benefits, but we are not seeing these adopted on a wide enough scale. Intellect would once again call for a review of compulsory EPAs for all companies.  No industry should suffer the outdated ‘old boy’s network’ with promotion being mainly through informal channels and word of mouth, leading to the same faces running companies for decades.

It is in the interest of our economy and society that we stop shying away from this issue and stand up to it. We have learnt over the years that equality brings much greater benefits both to the bottom line of companies but also to society.  I look forward to the day when a senior female figure in any walk of life is not something to be praised because of the obstacles she has over-come but for her ability to do her job.

By Carrie Hartnell, Transformational Business Programme Manager

This week around 20,000 students began a new era in education, albeit with some questions over the quality of the new qualifications available. The five diplomas of engineering, construction, health, IT and media have been controversial since their announcement but I for one believe they could add real value in many areas.  Vocational qualifications not only assist in bridging the gap between education and work, but also enable students to explore different styles of education.

We have all read the numerous articles about our declining education system, concerns from businesses about the levels of literacy, and numeracy in school-leavers and students leaving formal education with no understanding of turning theory into practice.  I am not saying this is the only option for our education system but for many the diploma could be the right answer.

For the technology industry, appealing to girls and boys and encouraging them to take up qualifications in this area is a step towards solving the sector’s skills problem.  But this is not just a course for those wanting to enter the technology industry.  In a world that is ever reliant on technology, the ability to recognise and exploit technology for business, education or the delivery of services is a vital differentiator for employees and employers alike.

So instead of criticising the new diplomas I would encourage support of these new qualifications, especially in areas such as IT and engineering.  We need to support the decision of students to enter this new system, encourage the premise behind diplomas and ensure they work to provide us with a new generation of students who have the right skills to succeed in world of work.

By Kate Whitehead, Transformational Business Programme Executive

The Intellect Young Professionals Network celebrated its first year anniversary on Tuesday evening with a Summer Reception held at IBM’s offices in South Bank, where young professionals from over 30 different companies were given the opportunity to network with their peers as well as with key industry leaders.

With news stories appearing almost every week on the shortage of skills in the UK’s technology sector, it was somewhat refreshing to see so many enthusiastic young people from our industry gathered in one place. ‘Carpe diem’ was most certainly the order of the evening.

It struck me that this was a great place for young professionals to be. As I drank wine in the sunshine out on the terrace with this optimistic bunch, each person I met gave an unyielding sense that they were at the forefront of a fast moving and exciting industry. This diverse group of people represents the best talents from across the globe, drawn to the UK because of the attractive option to work in a globally competitive UK technology industry.

The question that kept puzzling me is: if all these young professionals recognise the great opportunities of working in the UK's technology industry, why do we still have a large domestic skills gap?

While there were no definitive answers for this question it was encouraging to see this network of young professionals enjoying their industry. These future leaders have a responsibility to set a positive example to other aspiring youngsters and change perceptions of the industry. I for one think this network is a great place to start.

By Kate Whitehead, Transformational Business Programme Executive

The technology industry has always been a challenging environment for women to work in and the issue of diversity has been one of the most researched areas in the industry. A recent eskills report showed that female IT and telecoms staff still earn 20 percent less than their male counterparts, which is also unfavourably compared to the 12.6% national average. The gender pay gap has been long debated and with Minister for women and equality, Harriet Harman announcing details of the government’s Equalities Bill in a statement to the House of Commons yesterday, many will be welcoming the raise in profile of the debate.

Intellect has been campaigning on issues of equality in the industry and this month released its third Perceptions of Equal Pay survey. Every year the survey has highlighted worrying observations in the industry showning a lack a transparency concerning pay and action on discrimination policy. For example 54% of women working in technology think their pay package is not comparable to male colleagues performing a similar role, with 35% having evidence of this. Clearly the Equalities Bill is an important step in the fight for parity in pay, not just with women in the technology industry – but also for people across the UK workforce who are not receiving equal pay for equal work. It is important that both government and industry work together to enable full transparency, the removal of the salary gagging clause in contracts and the widespread adoption of equal pay audits.

Action taken in this sphere will also have a positive knock on effect in other areas where the technology industry is struggling. As identified in Intellect’s President’s Report, a state of the industry account, the sector is suffering an increasingly acute skills shortage. At a time when employment in the industry is growing five times faster than the UK average, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) education take up is declining rapidly and the ‘boys club’ culture remains, initiatives that go some way in addressing the concerns of women are welcome. The industry is at a point where it simply cannot afford to alienate a vast proportion of potential or current workers.

The Equalities Bill is an opportunity to openly debate the stark reality of inequality in the industry. If properly implemented the UK workforce stands to gain a transparent and fair employment system which will ensure the UK technology industry's position in the global  economy.

By Carrie Hartnell, Transformational Business Programme Manager

A study commissioned by the UK’s Council of Professors and Heads of Computing (CPHC), predicted, this week, that demand for IT skills is expected to grow by 15% over the next 8 years.  This isn’t new news.  We know from an e-skills report that every year the technology industry itself is looking to recruit around 140,000 new staff and this is before companies in other sectors need to fill their further requirements.  Unfortunately this coincides with time when the number of computing students has dropped by almost 50% since 2001.  Intellect’s own President’s Report shows that the number of applicants for single subject computing courses has declined from 31,000 in 2001 to 16,000 in 2006.

The UK technology industry has long talked about and suffered from a skills shortage.  There are a number of good industry and company schemes looking at short-term and long-term solutions.  However, the problem too often is that industry, government, educators and customers have failed to tackle the solutions as a collective.  Schemes too often are started but then  run out of support or funding, and little is done  to challenge the perception of technology as an undesirable  career or degree.  There are many barriers to increasing the number of computer graduates, from changing the teaching of IT at school to changing the perceptions of parents, students and teachers .  Of course, funding to encourage students to take these courses will help, but we must work to also change the image the industry and careers project. 

It is no longer just an issue for the technology industry and its customers, the shortage will, and already is, going to have real impacts on all industries from public sector, to finance, to retail and teaching.  Technological competence is a core skill, in the same way as literacy and numeracy.  It is important not only for industry but to ensure citizens do not face exclusion in any aspects of their lives.  Technology will only increase in its importance to the UK and we would all be better able to reap the benefits of technology with a more skilled society and workforce.

We must ensure that we all work together to find workable and effective solutions to these falling numbers of graduates.  We must promote all opportunities, role models and career paths and should encourage people to retrain or return to our industry.  The UK needs a lot more technologists and at present we don’t have the numbers of students going into further education which will provide industry with the skills required to ensure the UK remains competitive in a global knowledge economy.   

By Carrie Hartnell, Programme Manager

As we have discussed many times before, the UK is facing a skills shortage. This is regularly commented on in regards to the technology industry but we recognise that we are not alone - many of the UK’s key industries from agriculture to manufacturing and in nursing to teaching are grappling with similar skills issues.  As a nation we are struggling to attract the right people into our industries whether it is for basic labour in agriculture or for highly skilled work in the technology industry.  We are not providing a workforce that can enable the UK to compete globally.   

This is not a new problem.  The UK has long survived on an influx of highly educated, motivated migrant workers mixed with the talent from our own education and business system, and this is set to continue.  According to a study, compiled by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), highly skilled migrants (defined as managers, senior officials and those involved in professional, associate professional and technical occupations) are filling skills shortages in the UK.  The report forecasts that due to demands in professions such as nurses and IT specialists, in 2012 there will be 812,000 skilled migrants contributing over £77bn to our economy over the next four years.

The importance of migrant workers is well known within the technology industry but a continued increase in the number of migrant workers should not be seen as a long term solution for our industry.  The UK cannot rely on the fact that we will always be an attractive place to come, live and work. Recent reports suggest that many Polish workers are returning home for a better standard of living and the opportunities now available in their own markets.  The UK must look at its own development of talent and find the solutions that will ensure we can utilise all of the diverse talent in the UK as well as those highly skilled migrant workers.

The UK currently has a huge skills gap, which cannot continue to be filled purely by migrant workers, nor can new graduates purely fill it.  We must work with all stakeholders to retrain and re-skill our workforce. This will ensure a strong technology industry in the UK and therefore a strong, vibrant and competitive UK economy. 

By Carrie Hartnell - Transformational Business Programme Manager

Microsoft has recently announced its intention to give away some of its core software developer tools to high school and university institutions. This is a great example of business connecting with the education system to drive forward innovation and promote the uptake of important e-skills. The programme, called ‘DreamSpark’, reflects a big slice of the thinking at a recent European e-skils conference in Brussels.

The conference was attended by a collection of business, national education representatives and European commissioners. Focusing on sharing best practice and learning what Europe could do together to ensure it remained competitive, it was strongly agreed that Europe depends on the ability of its IT to remain competitive and guide its economic future. There was much discussion about short, mid and long-term solutions for students, teachers, businesses and the consumer. But the most important message was that they are all taking this issue seriously and are looking for a solution together. This wasn’t just a conference on science and engineering with some technology, this was a conference on the importance of technology to Europe and its future.

Emerging from the discussions, it is clear that many countries in Europe are already ahead of the UK in policy and Government backed projects to try and increase the number of people in the industry, and to drive a positive image of the industry. For example the Danish Education Minister holds informal meetings on a weekly basis with industry to discuss how they can help with the development of future education in relation to e-skills. 

However, the image of the technology industry is still a key barrier for all.  Not only do we need to persuade our politicians, parents, teachers and students that technology is a good career but we need to impress that it is a vital industry for the future of the UK. Technical skills are not the only skills required and in the future the ability to have business knowledge, and understanding of issues such as energy use, sales techniques and project management will be fundamental. Future generations will need a hybrid of skills whether the competition is from America, India, China or somewhere else in the world. It is about enabling students to be flexible with their skills as well as developing those with real interest into true specialists with career paths.

The message is clear - Europe recognizes that high-level e-skills are the future for economic success both nationally and across the EU.  There is a proven direct link between skills, productivity and economic growth. Investment in ICT has potential to raise the productivity of businesses, transform the internal working of companies and improve the way businesses interact with their suppliers and customers. 

The delegates at the conference recognized that they must develop the e-skills of future generations, as well as upskilling their workforce now. But most importantly they all agreed that the best way to ensure they increased the number of graduates, students and therefore employees, was to work together and co-ordinate their efforts so that they all could remain productive and competitive in the future.

By Carrie Hartnell, Transformational Business Programme Manager

We and our colleagues from the Intellect-Nasscom Partnership Programme delegation returned to the UK last week hugely impressed with the health of the Indian emerging IT sector and excited about the partnering opportunities available. The week-long mission was kindly sponsored by the South East Media Network, UK Trade and Invest and the UK India Business Council and was the first initiative in a partnership programme which aims to increase trade between the UK and India.

The UK delegation of nine was lead by Tom Wills-Sandford of Intellect.  Other participants were Arjun Chatterji (Playmetv), Gina Fegan  (South East Media Network ), John Gavin (G4h), Keith Dewar (SBA ), Nigel Hartnell (FFastfill and also Chairman SEMN), Phil Rice (Erudine),  Richard Sykes, and Steve Roche (Xenzone).

The kind of partnership opportunities explored by the UK delegation included:   

• Outsourcing of software/web development and IT services   
• Business and knowledge and process outsourcing   
• Strategic consulting   
• Selling into the Indian market   
• Assistance with UK market entry (for example, sales/marketing execution and resourcing)

A significant degree of momentum was generated during the week with, for example, a number of follow-up meetings scheduled to take place in London in the coming weeks in order to continue the discussion started in India. Some members of the UK delegation even said they were planning or making significant changes to their business plans to maximise the opportunities they identified during the week. Additionally, the UK companies identified synergies and ways that they could partner and do business together.

One of the most striking things we found was an acceptance in India that the cost advantage, compared to the US and UK (its two biggest customers) will erode, as wage inflation in the local IT industry is running at about 15 per cent per annum. 

Many Indian IT leaders believe  they have already reached the position where their competitive advantage comes not just from lower costs, but from their huge and skilled workforce and the quality of the services that they deliver. 

We heard many times about the paramount importance of quality. Even with their large talent pool, wage inflation is high because there is still a shortage of skilled workers. This leads in turn to high staff turnover - the industry average is 19 per cent per annum for the IT sector and much higher for the IT-enabled services sector. This a major concern for the industry. We heard a lot about the measures individual companies were taking to reduce staff turnover, but the effectiveness of the measures appeared to be limited.

The mission team concluded that if you are in IT and you have not at least explored how India and its vast array of IT services (as well as its growing domestic market) can help you grow your business or reduce your costs or get access to scarce skills, you will be putting your organisation at a serious disadvantage.

A successful partnership will bring benefits to both sides - not least to UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It is for this reason that Intellect expects to continue with this programme linking SMEs from both countries. We are planning a return visit with Indian IT companies visiting the UK for a week in late spring and expect to create a forum to exchange experiences and learnings. We also expect to return to India with other SMEs in 2009 and beyond.

By Tom Wills-Sandford (Intellect) and Steve Roche (Xenzone and Intellect member)

Just over 10 years ago our new, well newish, prime minister Mr Blair delivered perhaps his most famous soundbite of all. When asked what his three priorities in government were he replied: ‘Education, education, education’.

Since then, the soundbite has been backed up with hard cash by the Labour government: measured between 1997 and the end of the last academic year, the core "per pupil" funding has risen by 48 per cetn in real terms - or £1,450 more per year per child. By the end of this academic year, it will be a 55 per cent increase.  Yet despite this considerable spike in capital investment from the government, standards have refused to show a commensurate improvement.  The government aims for 60 per cent of pupils to leave school at 16 with 5 A-C grrades at GCSE: in 2007 45.1 per cent of pupils were ending compulsory education with these qualifications - up from 35.6 per cent in 1997, but still some way below target. 

So, we have a government still wrestling with the thorny subject of how to drive up standards in schools.

This serves as some background for the announcement by schools minister Jim Knight that technology and its potential was going to be the latest weapon deployed to tackle educational disadvantage. The traditional school report is to be replaced by an electronic version delivered by email and consumer electronics, such as computers and mobile phones, should be used to give parents information about their children's school work. The minister said  this would give parents access to "frequently-updated information on children's achievement, progress, attendance, behaviour and special needs wherever, whenever they want, using password-protected, secure, online systems".

There all sorts of potential pitfalls to such an idea and the government is precariously positioned at the moment to embark upon such a large scale and ambitious IT project. This is to say nothing of the opposition from the powerful teaching unions who have predictably, if understandably, voiced concerns about teachers’ workloads as well as ‘Big Brother’ style privacy concerns.

However, and I say this as a former teacher, the chance to provide real-time feedback to parents and students on performance and areas of improvement could make an immeasurable difference in underachieving schools. Letting students know where they’re at and what they need to do to improve is an essential cornerstone of helping progression. Sharing this information with parents, some of whom Knight characterises as "hard to reach", could make all the difference.

This is really is convergence in action as information flows freely from a number of sources across networks to a number of devices. Parents can already receive an automatically generated text message sent by an attendance register at school if their child is inexplicably absent. Imagine what the affect would be of both child and parent receiving a text message on a Friday afternoon with the previous week's grades and next week's attainment targets contained. 

This is a remarkably bold and progressive move by the minister – unions have raised a sceptical eyebrow and greeted it "cautiously". If even the bare bones of it come into effect in schools, it will be a lasting and worthy legacy to 10 years of investment.   

By Sam Ingleby