IT grappling with image problem

Auckland University of Technology academic Tony Clear illustrates the ICT sector's image problem by sharing an anecdote about a friend with a senior role in the industry who has 12-year-old twin daughters.

When their IT analyst mum asked the girls what they thought of technology as a career choice they replied they wouldn't consider it "because it's boring - it's about word processing and spreadsheets".

Clear, AUT's associate head of the school of computer and information sciences, says the twins' attitude sums up a harmful perception the IT industry is grappling with.

"They [young people] have got no idea about what the industry involves, the range of jobs and careers that are available, the fact that it's interesting, that it's peopled by human beings who talk to each other, the fact that there's lots of scope for women," he says.

The impact of IT's poor image has serious consequences across the broader economy.

At a time when government and industry are pushing innovative technology-based businesses as New Zealand's passport to prosperity, senior IT job vacancies are on the rise.

Graduate numbers are failing to keep pace with job demand and the number of students entering many university IT courses is falling.

The ICT taskforce report in 2003 concluded that the limited supply of appropriately educated graduates was the second highest constraint to the growth of the ICT sector (behind New Zealand's depth of experience with internationally competitive companies).

According to the Department of Labour's most recent occupational skill shortage assessment report on IT professionals, published last November, the number of jobs for IT professionals filled within eight to 10 weeks of being advertised fell from 89 per cent in 2003 to 53 per cent in 2004.

At the same time the number of suitable applicants applying for those jobs dropped from an average of 3.8 per vacancy to 1.8 and the number of specialisations suffering a shortage of staff rose from 13 to 54.

Part of the problem is that demand for IT professionals is rocketing. The Labour Department says between early 2001 and early 2005 the number of employed IT professionals (defined as systems analysts, computer applications engineers and systems managers) leaped from 9000 to 23,000.

At the same time, the total number of students enrolling for IT degrees at Auckland, Canterbury, Otago and Victoria Universities has fallen for each of the past four years.

The issue of how to make IT a more attractive option for students has been taxing the minds of academics and industry leaders attending the national advisory committee on computing qualifications' annual conference in Wellington over the past four days.

Professor John Hine, head of the school of mathematics, statistics and computer science at Victoria University and a keynote speaker at the conference, told delegates the industry needed to shake off its geeky image and broaden its appeal beyond the traditional demographic of Pakeha males.

"We have to break out of that syndrome. There are lots of opportunities there, but it's about how ICT markets itself as a profession or an occupation to the kids. There's still too much of the geeky image," he told the Herald.

Like Clear, Hine feels IT is suffering from the stigma of being unfairly perceived as being boring and involving mundane, computer-based tasks.

"I think travel agents probably spend more time sitting in front of a screen than most IT people do," he says.

IBM New Zealand managing director Katrina Troughton, who also spoke at the conference, says parents' lingering misgivings about the IT sector as a result of the dotcom collapse in 2000 can weigh on their children's career choice.

"There is no question that demand around ICT skills is going to continue and therefore we need to continue to work together on what the industry needs," Troughton says.

"For people who don't work in the field or aren't daily across it, I can well appreciate we've still got work to do to overturn that perception, and therefore that could easily influence kids," she says.

"Secondly, as an industry some of our role models aren't necessarily the coolest people out there. I'm not sure that Bill Gates, for example, is the natural turn-on for a 12-year-old girl."

John Biggs, founder of Auckland-based Complete Solutions, a business specialising in customer relationship management solutions, says he has hired about 25 staff over the 10 years the business has been running.

"I think we have an obligation to make sure we don't hire creative people and put them into mundane jobs," he says.

"We don't always need to employ on academic qualifications. We've got to be much more mindful of the type of work we're giving people and hire people with the right kind of learning skills and the right aptitude to do those jobs."

Clear says changing the perception of the industry and getting students enthused about IT as a career choice needs to involve improving the high school curriculum.

"The school curriculum doesn't have a lot of credibility, it's incredibly fragmented," he says.

"IT is not regarded as a prestigious subject. It's the sort of thing they quarantine the hopeless into, really."

Hine says doing a better marketing job for the industry should be possible given today's teenagers are enthusiastic users of IT, are good multi-taskers, and have become good researchers thanks to the internet. "They're certainly much more comfortable with ICT and to some extent we should be able to take advantage of that," he says.

"I would argue that the tertiary sector hasn't adapted rapidly enough to what the kids can do with ICT."

Like Troughton, he also points to the power of Bill Gates as an industry icon, saying the Microsoft founder's success should be harnessed as a drawcard for the industry. Gates, he points out, has evolved from being a geek into a highly successful businessman and philanthropist.

Admittedly not everyone can become the richest person on the planet by building a technology business. But by focusing more on exposing today's tech-savvy teenagers to the potential of a career in the ICT sector, New Zealand should be able to solve both a short-term staffing crush and help open up lucrative new markets.

As Hines puts it: "Everyone's got to start working hard to try to convince kids - and their parents - that ICT is actually an exciting field to get into and work in."

GROWING PAINS

* The number of IT professionals in employment jumped from 9000 in 2001 to 23,000 in early 2005.

* The number of IT professional jobs filled within eight to 10 weeks of advertising dropped from 89 per cent in 2003 to 53 per cent in 2004.

* Over the same period, the number of suitable applicants per advertised position dropped from 3.8 to 1.8.

* While strong growth in employment demand is expected to continue over the medium and long term, employers remain reluctant to employ new graduates.

Source: Department of Labour report, November 2005