ICT for the UK’s Future, has been launched at Aston University, Birmingham,  examining the changing nature of information, communications technology and how it can be exploited to benefit the prosperity and diversity of the UK economy.

"The UK has lost or is in danger of losing core IT skills underpinning business
competitiveness. Development and maintenance of such skills are essential to the creation of a strong cadre of technicians to keep the ‘virtual pipes’ working for the UK economy"

"A complex, significant and growing IT skills gap. The gap is broad (it covers all sectors – education, enterprise and government); wide (it encompasses people at all stages of their personal and professional development); and deep (the types of skills required are hardearned)."

“With the trend in outsourcing to other countries, base skills are being lost. It is hard for a workforce to gain experience on higher value technologies if they
have not been exposed to some of the base enabling technologies. Thus,
providing finances permit, the UK will be in a stronger position to develop talent if the technologies are based locally, i.e. in the UK.”

Professor Robert Berry,(right) executive Dean of Engineering & Applied Science at Aston University and Secretary of the Academy study group, said that many small and medium size enterprises (SME's) in the UK still had no internet capabilities.

“This report highlights that broadband internet is an essential, social, cultural and economic development tool for the nation and we need to achieve 100% cent broadband coverage for the UK (England, Wales, Scotland & Nothern Ireland). In addition, we need better IT education at all levels of society and stronger engagement with SME’s, to ensure they can receive adequate IT guidance and support to address any technological concerns," he said.

“The IT industry is worth £30bn to the UK economy and has the ability to double in the next five to seven years, which is why we want to ensure we have the right skills and infrastructure to compete in this global market.”

The18- month UK-wide study recommends that an improved IT infrastructure and better education in IT (not actually cutting the funding allocation as is proposed in Scotland) are crucial for future UK competitiveness.

Proposals:

• Government should facilitate genuinely affordable, reliable and fully pervasive broadband coverage for the entire UK by 2012, reducing the cost by exploiting competitive and innovative approaches.
• Current ICT programme in schools should be expanded in two key areas: the programme should be broadened to include the exploitation of new interaction modes and interfaces; and concepts such as computational thinking should be given broader exposure.
• Many more 14-19 year olds should be motivated pursue careers in ICT and allied trades. This can only be achieved with the development of appropriate qualifications in the implementation, upgrading, installation and support of complex IT systems.
• Government should encourage widespread exploitation of cloud computing and collaborative web-based capabilities by UK businesses. It should reduce barriers to entry through appropriate regulatory and selfregulatory structures. It should also encourage the creation of an indigenous UK supply industry for hardware, software and service provision, differentiated by commitment to high levels of resilience and security.
• Technology transfer organisations such as those associated with universities and research organisations should adopt novel business models which enable value to be created more effectively from ICT research.
• The Technology Strategy Board should focus on a coherent range of related applications and technologies and concentrate increased investment in a small number of key projects. The selections should accelerate those areas where the UK can win a lead in world markets, such as highly dependable software and socio-technical sensor-based applications. Partnerships should be facilitated which enable the bringing of new concepts, products and services to market.

Professor Jim Norton, (left) a member of the study group, which was chaired by Rear Admiral John Trewby, added; “A pervasive broadband infrastructure is a pre-requisite for a modern knowledge based economy. This Royal Academy of Engineering report makes a number of key recommendations, and describes how the gaps in our broadband coverage could be filled cost-effectively.”