The IT workforce in the South East is 244,640, including:

• 137,951 employees in the IT industry
• 106,689 IT professionals working in other sectors

This accounts for 21% of the total IT workforce in the UK and is the largest regional IT workforce in England.  The region’s IT employment share is predicted to grow over the next ten years. 

A high proportion of companies in the South East employing IT professionals reported skills gaps (14%), compared to Britain (9%).

The most common IT professional job role in the region is ‘ICT Manager’ which differs from the UK as a whole.  There is a lower proportion of software professionals than the UK average. 

Similar to other regions, skills gaps are reported in the development and implementation of IT systems and services.  There is continued shortage of employees trained in programming languages such as C++, SQL, Java and Visual Basic.  Future skill requirements are focused on systems architecture.  There will be an on-going demand for technical skills in system integration, networking, web design, security and IT architecture.

The region has a good completion rate for further education professional and IT user qualifications.  Twenty higher education institutions in the region offer QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) accredited Computing or Computer Science courses.  The region attracted 16.9% of graduates who entered the UK IT workforce within six months of graduation.  It is the most popular destination for graduates wishing to enter the IT workforce.

Source: e-skills UK South East regional report 2005a