Dick Sblog

On the upside – according to new research, the UK is ranked first in Europe for IT user skills and above the average in IT ’specialist’ skills. According to the Commission’s research, one in four of the UK’s total workforce has IT user skills, compared with an EU average of just over one in six. The UK ranked 10th overall on IT specialist skills, with around 3% of the UK’s workforce holding this level of competence.
Source: ‘i2010 – Annual Information Society Report 2007′

On the downside – a report by the Council for Industry and Higher Education and LogicaCMG highlights the danger of a shortage of qualified employees within the next few years unless more support is given to the development of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects. To quote, “”We need graduates with independent, inquisitive minds who can formulate ideas and solutions and articulate them clearly. We need our education system to train young people to think for themselves rather than simply learning by rote. Our education system must produce young people who are not just technically proficient but who also have strong problem-solving, innovation and communication skills.”

And to do that, we need students who are engaged with and excited by these subjects.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Diamond Light Source at Harwell. This absolutely stunning experimental machine, (funded by the UK Government and the Welcome Trust) was built on-time and on budget (contrary to the usual media image of big UK public sector projects). I’m a biologist not an engineer but I challenge anyone with more than half a neurone not to be inspired by the complexity of this project; it’s what science should be – exciting.