Group tackles skills deficit - Industry Trend or Event

CommunicationsWeek International, March 20, 2000 by Jane Dudman

Networking vendors and operators, backed by government, have set up the first national association in Europe to try to combat the growing shortage of skilled network professionals.

The Data Networking Association (DNA) was launched in London earlier this month by 11 founder members, including Cisco Systems Inc., BT Cellnet, Cable & Wireless, Energis plc and L.M. Ericsson AB, to raise awareness about job opportunities in the networking market.

Backed by the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry, the association will run a three-year campaign to educate children and adults about the benefits of a career in networking.

Analysts agree that the shortage of skilled staff is already having a major impact on European telecoms development, and that competition for network professionals is intensifying across Europe. New research by International Data Corp., Framingham, Massachusetts, commissioned by Cisco, projects a shortage of almost 600,000 qualified networking professionals in Europe by 2002. Germany will be worst hit, with a shortage of 188,000 staff, and the United Kingdom comes second with a shortage of 81,000 network professionals.

But industry consultants are not sure organizations such as the DNA, with its emphasis on education and training, will actually solve the skills shortage.

"Organizations like this won't fix the problem because there is such a technical race for suppliers to be first with new products," said Steve Rose, a director at recruitment consultants Close Communications Ltd., Chesham, England, which has worked on a large number of mobile network projects across Europe. "We need to pay attention to what employees are looking for and it is not money, it is about making networking an attractive industry."

Industry consultants agree that if skills shortages are not dealt with, future telecoms projects--3G mobile networks in particular--could be stopped dead. "Infrastructure suppliers promise the earth and then can't deliver, because of the problems in hiring staff," said Close Communications' Rose.

Allen Timpany, chairman of network integrator Vanco Ltd., Isleworth, England, and one of the founder members of the DNA, said the association wants to raise the profile of all network professionals, without whom further progress in e-commerce could be threatened.

Cisco is backing similar initiatives in other European countries, including Germany, where the European Information and Communications Technology Industry Association has just gained government agreement to allow 20,000 IT professionals from outside Germany to join German IT and net working companies.