Wales has a total IT workforce of 34,529, including:

• 12,323 employees in the IT industry (580,000 in the UK)
• 22,206 IT professionals working in other sectors (590,000 in the UK)

This distribution of the workforce is typical compared to English regions.   It is expected that the proportion of UK IT employment in Wales will decline over the next ten years.

The most common IT professional job role in the region is ‘ICT Manager’, differing to the UK.  There are significant skills gaps in the IT professional workforce (12%) compared to 9% in Great Britain.  Skills gaps are reported in the development and implementation of IT systems and services.  36% of companies in Wales have IT vacancies compared to 17% in Great Britain.

Future skills in systems architecture will be in demand.  IT professionals working with a combination of business and IT understanding will benefit the most from future developments in the sector.  There will be an ongoing demand for technical skills in systems integration, networking, web design, security and IT architecture.

Wales has a one in three success rate for IT further education courses.  Most further education training is focused on IT user qualifications, as it is in the UK.  The country has 8 higher education institutions offering QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) accredited courses in Computing or Computer Science.  It attracted 4.1% of graduates who entered the UK IT workforce within six months of graduation.

Source: e-skills UK Wales skills analysis report 2005a