On the 23rd June we launched the latest addition to our Sector Intelligence research series:

Do undergraduates want a career in IT?

A study of the attitudes of current UK undergraduates in relation to careers and work in the IT sector

Government, industry and the education sector all recognise that IT is a strategically important sector for Britain’s future knowledge-based economy. The demand for professional level people in IT is growing but the supply of graduates and young people studying IT related degrees has been declining since 2001. As a result many employers in the sector are unable to fill their professional vacancies.  

We recently carried out a national survey of undergraduates to ascertain their careers thinking in relation to the IT sector. Undergraduates studying IT and non-IT related degrees were asked about their intention to progress into jobs in the sector, or not, their motivations for that decision, their understanding of career prospects and the skills they would need. They also identified the job roles and types of employers that were most attractive to them, and commented on the recruitment activities of companies in the sector as well as the other career influences upon them.  

Our extremely popular half-day seminar explored the outcomes of the research alongside inputs from IBM and the British Computing Society around the work they are doing to better inform and support the career decision making of undergraduates in relation to the IT sector.

Copies of the CRAC Sector Intelligence research report, ‘Do undergraduates want a career in IT’, were disseminated at the event.