IT qualification will be useful

Your recent article questions whether there is a need for the Information and Communication Technology Technician (ICTTech) qualification to be offered by the Engineering Council UK (ECUK) (Engineering body pushes new IT qualification, 9 June). In fact, the piece suggests that it might actually add confusion to what is described as an “already overcrowded panoply of IT qualifications”.

But the ECUK award cannot be compared with qualifications such as BCS’s Chartered IT Professional, which is not aimed at technician-level staff.

ECUK is confident that the ICTTech qualification, which has been developed in collaboration with employers and ICT sector bodies, is unique. It is the first professional qualification designed for technicians working in the sector and will provide a non-proprietary competence standard where previously none existed. It will benefit not only those who gain it – providing real recognition of their skills – but also those who employ them.

Andrew Ramsay, chief executive, ECUK

Firms will pay dearly for axing IT workers

I’m one of the independent developers that saw his 10-year-old business become untenable because of the outsourcing craze (Time running out for foreign IT skills, 17 March). Now I work for a company in the Midlands as a remote worker writing cutting-edge software, but on a Midlands salary while living in the south-east. I also work alongside another very highly-skilled software developer, who saw his Midlands-based company become untenable for exactly the same reason.

It’s a bit late for companies to bemoan not being able to get decent IT support now because the government concludes that there are enough IT skills in the UK. All those firms whose non-IT savvy directors thought they could reduce expenditure by cutting out the beating heart of their IT have all but killed off the cream of the available UK IT industry.

This isn’t a new form of ignorance. Years ago I worked for a company that started to let its engineers go to save money. The engineers were the heart of the company, and the company all but died because of it.

If you are reading this as an IT professional who still has their original job, if there is someone at the end of the food chain in your organisation counting pennies instead of determining what a good investment really is, I’d advise starting to apply for other jobs now.

David Lambert

Personalising the IT helpdesk

After an initial laugh at the contents of Alistair Dabb’s recent article, and identifying our very own young bloke with spiky hair and smelling of Armani, I re-read it and can relate to this attitude (Don’t let end users take you for granted, 18 February).

Having worked in the network support environment for some years, I was constantly referred to as “the female one”. When we introduced our IT customer services team nearly four years ago, this was one of the issues identified.

Now, not only do users know names, they also know what we look like, as we send out “Support Posters” identifying the service desk personnel with photographs. As it is a centralised service desk, the likelihood of anyone personally meeting the staff is very low, unless they work at the site the service desk is based at.

There have also been opportunities for the staff to swap roles with the roaming mobile technician to allow them to visit the sites they support and introduce themselves.

Personally, I think you can iron out a lot of issues with a friendly handshake and a personal introduction, and that goes for both IT staff and users.

Kate Neal

The road to CIO success

The analogy of chief information officers (CIOs) reaching a “fork in the road” is a severe underestimation of the situation (CIOs approaching a fork in the road, 11 February). The debate is no longer about which direction to take, as the IT chief must adopt a business-focused role to ensure continued growth.

With information systems becoming increasingly embedded in business operations, the role of the CIO will gain in importance. It is imperative the CIO has a presence on the board, to allow greater transparency and improved collaboration in shaping the future of the company.

There is no “fork in the road”. However, there is a path of integration and business alignment. Otherwise, there is a dead-end, down which too many IT projects and too much thinking is currently backed up.

Lindsey Armstrong, Salesforce.com

How to make IT more attractive to women

To continue to provide first-class IT services to UK businesses, it is critical for IT companies to attract and retain the brightest talent available (The IT sector is still failing women, 21 November). Yet there is evidently still an unwillingness across the industry to accept that one of the biggest handicaps is the failure to attract significant numbers of women and to tackle the outdated prejudices surrounding the roles of IT staff.

Of course, it is important not to underestimate the role that schools and colleges can play in encouraging young people to consider technology qualifications. But, with some notable exceptions, little has been done by IT firms to tackle this problem. 

Just as other sectors that used to be male dominated – like accountancy, law or medicine – have taken positive steps to attract more women, IT firms need to follow suit. What is required is a far more imaginative approach to attracting women into the industry, such as designing a flexible working structure.

Mark MacGregor, Connect Support Services

Let women shine in IT

I have been running our IT department for the past 10 years in an organisation that is dominated by females (Strength through diversity, 17 September). Among the first five staff I employed were two females. All the new staff were fresh graduates and new to the IT work environment.

They all received equal treatment and training opportunities, but the female members of the team never scaled the same heights as their male colleagues.

Despite a lot of support and training, the two females eventually moved on. This was five years ago. Since then, we have had difficulty attracting female IT staff. All responses to adverts we put out during that time were male – until this year.

This year, we got quite a number of female applicants and we now have two new female staff. They are both very bright, hardworking and dedicated and are doing just as well as everyone else. They have brought with them such a colourful diversity of ideas and creativity to the team that there really is no argument for not actively promoting female IT staff among the workforce.

Patrick Anigbo, head of IT, Adepta

Women are keen on IT

Martin Davies works in a strange world – or I do (Letters, 29 October). I have been an IT professional for more than 25 years. From my very first class, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of women students.

Subsequently, I have found the female sex to be well represented in the IT industry. On more than one occasion I have worked for a female IT manager.

So to say that women “just do not want to do IT” is fatuous, to say the least.

John McCallum

Tech-savvy females boost business

I’d certainly have to agree with Lorraine Cousins (Letters, 15 October). At the same time, I’m finding it more and more disheartening to hear how difficult it is for women in the IT sector as a whole.

Fortunately, our company is far from the norm. Working in the computer recycling and asset disposal sector, we have seen extremely rapid growth over the past year, due in no little part to the company being led by my wife. She has got a head for running an IT business that would leave me feeling pretty much bemused half the time – and that is coming from a postgrad with years of experience in project management.

I think it is time the industry realised that being able to multitask can be a serious benefit in this industry. Besides, many clients like to speak to a woman about technical issues. It may be sexist, but having an IT-savvy female in charge certainly sells our services and even products.

Richard Tanfield-Johnson

Gender bias not to blame

In my many years of studying computing, I do not recall seeing any female students in my classes (Why IT’s gender bias has to end, 24 September). Now as an employer I have not received any applications from the said sex. Moreover, I regularly receive CVs from recruitment agencies and not one has been from a female applicant.

This must surely prove that women just do not want to do IT and there is no gender bias at all.

Martin Davies

Women can and should do it themselves

Can it really be true that only 16 per cent of the IT workforce is female (Why IT’s gender bias has to end, 24 September)? This figure is both maddening and saddening, and shows the true picture of gender unbalance in the IT world. 

I have been working in this fascinating sector since the early 1980s. During my career I have encountered every gender cliché possible: salary discrepancies; multiple interviews for a position when male counterparts were interviewed only once; and receiving mail addressed to “Mr Cousins” – the default assumption being that a software firm’s MD must be male.

I’m living proof that women can excel on their own merits in this sector. I am, however, very concerned that simply asking male directors to open their doors to female engineers and IT professionals is merely lip-service. It also implies that men will continue to control this sector.

Lorraine Cousins, Halcyon Software