Video Q&A: Keith Young, IT director, Standard Life - part two
Young talks on the future of IT leadership and gives advice to aspiring technology leaders - part two of a two-part interview
As part of Computing's Tomorrow's IT Leaders campaign, we talk to the UK's top chief information officers (CIOs) regarding their views on the role of IT leaders and how this will change in the post-recession world.
Keith Young, IT director at Edinburgh-based Standard Life is concerned about the future of the UK's IT leadership, but thinks the projected figure of high-level IT staff needed over the coming years - 140,000 people, according to sector skills council e-skills UK - is an 'urban myth'.
Standard Life has a long-standing IT graduate programme and Young maintains that more businesses need to be prepared to set up such schemes as a way to avert a potential leadership crisis.
In this video, the insurer's IT chief talks to Angelica Mari and The Better Practice Forum chairman Colin Beveridge about the importance of improving social skills for future leaders, introducing social media to better engage with staff and creating a working environment that facilitates career development.