Home > News > February 2006 > 08-Feb-2006

IT workers get little career guidance or support from employers, says survey

Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. Information technology workers are getting little guidance or support from their employers when it comes to career training and education, according to the findings of a survey released by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).

The vast majority of respondents to the CompTIA survey - 85 percent - said they decide what IT training and education they need based on their own career plans. Just 8 percent said they make these choices based on their employer's requirements or recommendations.

The survey of 462 IT professionals based in the United States and Canada also found that 60 percent of the workers are currently looking for new jobs. Of those looking for new jobs, 81 percent described their job search as active.

"Employers may be doing themselves a great disservice by not taking a more aggressive role in setting priorities when it comes to the continuing education and re-skilling of their IT workers," said Neill Hopkins, vice president, skills development, CompTIA.

"The cost of recruiting, hiring and training new tech workers due to high staff turnover is significantly higher than an investment in ongoing training for employees already on the payroll. Clearly the IT professionals we surveyed have the desire and willingness to advance their skill levels so that they can more effectively contribute to the employer's success."

Only 20.5 percent of tech workers surveyed said their employer provides paid time away from work for training and education. In addition, more than 88 percent of IT workers surveyed said they pay in full or in part for their career training and education.

Workers surveyed by CompTIA said they spent on average about $2,200 on training and education in the past year; and expect to increase that amount to about $2,300 in the next 12 months. The survey also found that IT professionals are spending about 11 hours a week to learn new skills, educate themselves on new technologies or to study IT-related topics.

CompTIA says one way in which employers and their IT staff can collaborate on skill advancement strategies is by utilising the CompTIA Tech Career Compass (http://tcc.comptia.org/). This free resource is designed to provide comprehensive career guidance on IT job roles. CompTIA says employers can measure their workforce against industry standards to evaluate the skill levels of current staff and to map out training strategies, and individual workers can identify relevant training and professional certifications that will allow them to fill gaps in their current experience skills, or add new skills to their portfolios.

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