IT jobs for the picking - degree or not

Stan Beer
Sunday, 27 July 2008 15:04

IT People - Enterprise

Australian employers are so desperate for skilled IT workers that an academic qualification such as a degree is no longer a mandatory requirement, according to a leading recruitment boss. But is the IT sector really bucking a softening overall employment outlook?

According to Deborah Howard, managing director of Diversiti, the IT&T subsidiary of recruiter Chandler McLeod, a severe talent shortage has forced employers to think about alternative hiring influences. Employers are also getting less picky about which university their new employees attended.

"When you look at the soft skills and technical skills, the specific university attended is obviously important, but getting experience and being able to come up to speed quite quickly has risen to the top as having a greater influence," says Ms Howard.

"I also they're being realistic about how many students are actually enrolling in some of the IT disciplines and saying employers perhaps need to have an appetite for being a little bit more flexible about the types of tertiary institutions and the qualifications that people are coming out with."

Graduates are still valuable, according to Ms Howard, but the imperative of having an IT specific degree is less than it once was.

"Employers are not just looking at graduates in one single vertical. They're looking at what their overall hiring intentions are for the next 12 months and they're kind of looking at the big picture and seeing that the pool of graduates is quite small. Then they're thinking what other influences are important on their hiring decisions," says Ms Howard.

So why does Ms Howard believe the IT&T jobs market is growing while the rest of the jobs market is declining? Please read on to page 2