Top 10 IT skills stories of 2013
Computing has a look at the hardest hitting IT skills stories of the year
For many years, industry has complained that there is a shortage of IT talent, particularly those with technical expertise, and in 2013 similar complaints resurfaced. However, companies are now more specific about the type of skills they require, and with new trends and threats arising, new skillsets are being sought after.
In order to deal with this, the government is finally overhauling the way it teaches IT and computing. But companies still fear that certain skill gaps in IT that are becoming more important to businesses are not being addressed for the here and now.
One of those is the cyber security skills gap, and Computing has started its own campaign, dubbed Securing Talent to raise awareness of the growing need for people with cyber security skills in industry and government, and for clearer pathways into the cyber security profession.
Below is a list of Computing's 10 most interesting themes around IT skills, featuring some of the hardest hitting stories of 2013.
10. ‘Big data' skills
With more data being made available to companies, the need for people who can process it has been a major theme throughout 2013.
Earlier in the year Computing looked into the types of skills that were necessary for a big data job and questioned whether companies were rushing to recruit people to fill the roles even if applicants did not have the prerequisite skills.
By the end of November, business software firm SAS claimed that 300 students who attended its big data careers fair would have a one in three chance of being recruited by an SAS customer - with the likes of British Airways, HMRC, Nationwide, PwC and the BBC all looking for big data specialists.
9. National Crime Agency to hire 400 trainee cyber security officers
The National Crime Agency (NCA), a UK government body which aims to cut serious and organised crime in the UK, said it was on the lookout for 400 trainee cyber intelligence officers who could get a starting salary of £22,407. The agency said it was looking for "ambition and aptitude" in the area of cyber or intelligence, rather than qualifications.
8. Deloitte on the hunt for cyber security professionals with ‘people skills'
Deloitte's head of UK cyber security, James Nunn-Price, told Computing that the firm is on the lookout for cyber security professionals with ‘people skills' - claiming that it is possible to find someone with security skills or business skills, but finding both was a tough task.
"The security people end up in a bunker because no one knows what they are saying. In the last two years there has been a huge shift, and now those people with security skills need to be able to explain to stakeholders what a problem is in simple terms," he said.
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Top 10 IT skills stories of 2013
Computing has a look at the hardest hitting IT skills stories of the year
Prime minister David Cameron announced that international technology experts would be given fast-tracked visas to enable them to work in the UK.
As part of the ‘Exceptional Talent' visa route, Tech City would work with the Home Office so that the UK can benefit from more specialists in the technology sector from April 2014.
Prior to the announcement, applications were restricted and industry – particularly startups in the Tech City area – lamented the dearth of IT talent available.
6. David Willetts: Government is trying to create pathways into the cyber security profession
The minister of state for universities and science David Willets exclusively told Computing that the government was working hard to create different entry routes to the cyber security profession.
"Work is underway to both strengthen and raise awareness of the variety of potential entry routes to the cyber security profession," he said.
"This is vital if we are to harness the interest shown by new young talent, and provide effective stepping-stones for those already in the workforce but keen to enter this field," he added.
5. Computer science to be included in EBacc: Bob Harrison claims that it was a mere ‘diversion' from the UK's real problems in IT education
As part of the coalition's plans to overhaul IT education, education secretary Michael Gove announced that computer science would be included as part of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), a performance indicator that measures the percentage of students in a school who achieve grades A* to C at GCSE level in specific studies.
But Bob Harrison, the chair of Support for Education and Training (SET) told Computing that this was a mere "diversion" from the UK's real problems in IT education.
"The background to [Michael Gove believing that ICT teaching in schools was bad] is the Royal Society report on computing in schools, which was called 'Shut Down or Restart'," he said. "Look at who paid for it: Microsoft, Google and a dozen or so computer science departments of universities who had seen their enrolment for computer science degrees plummet to about a third of what they were 10 years ago.
"It begs the question, ‘Where was he coming from, and why was he saying that?'."
4. World needs 21 million cyber security professionals - but there are only 3,000 now, warns expert
In October, yet another expert in the cyber security field – Robert Hansen, director of product management for security firm WhiteHat Security – told Computing that there was a lack of online security professionals, with 21 million more required in order to properly provide protection against threats from hackers and cyber criminals on the web.
He said that currently, there are about 3,000 people in the world capable of performing web application assessments, and compliance mandates four assessments per year, which is a "deficit of around 21 million web application security testers".
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Top 10 IT skills stories of 2013
Computing has a look at the hardest hitting IT skills stories of the year
3. ‘There is no cyber security skills gap', says The Economist's head of infosecurity
Despite several reports and experts claiming that there is a cyber security skills gap, Vicki Gavin, head of business continuity and information security at The Economist, believes that there is no such thing, and rather that there is a problem with organisations' recruitment processes.
"I think there are a lot of really bad recruiters out there, because I have got a fantastic team and I have never had any problems finding high-quality skilled staff, and I don't pay more than the rest of the people on the street. In fact I probably pay less," she said.
2. Not enough data scientists, MIT expert tells Computing
"There aren't enough data scientists, not even close," Alex ‘Sandy' Pentland, director of the Human Dynamics group and the Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) exclaimed.
Pentland argued that more data scientists need to come from an electrical engineering background, rather than mathematics, and that in order to educate data scientists, society needs to be treated like the quantitative science he believes it has become thanks to the proliferation of data in the world.
"Because the way society works is now becoming a quantitative science, it's not the part of humanity that theorises about psychology and so forth. It's actually now data science and people need to become more familiar with some of the lessons about that," he said.
1. ‘No one knows precisely what skills children will need in the future,' says Michael Gove
"No one knows precisely what skills children will need in the future," education secretary Michael Gove told Computing in an exclusive interview about the Department for Education's new curriculum guidelines.
Gove added that almost every career is being transformed by technology, and as a result young people will depend on IT in the future.
"All young people in the 21st century will need to be equally comfortable with reading, writing and programming; understanding not just how to work a computer, but how a computer works," said Gove.
The full interview with Gove is available to read here.