IT illiteracy drags on UK economy

07/11/2008 by swordfish.

The UK is losing millions of working hours a week due to a lack of basic IT literacy, according to a report published on Friday (7/11) by City & Guilds, the UK’s principal body for work-related accreditations.

The study highlights the burden that a lack of basic IT skills puts on the economy, as everyday IT issues are resolved by staff who happen to have some IT knowledge but are not employed to fix IT problems.

Some 5.3 million workers “in the know” about IT lose 2.5 hours per week in dealing with their colleagues’ problems, the study found.

The majority of companies, 59 percent, rely on staff with no official IT role to sort out daily computing problems, the study found. Small companies with six to 10 employees were the worst offenders, with 65 percent relying on non-specialised staff members to put in extra hours to fix IT issues.

Source: ‘ZDNet’

Return to the main QBS site

Posted in IT Careers, Technology News | Print | No Comments »