OK so where are the shortage areas now?

The media and commentators say XYZ people will need to be retrained, up-skilled, but any of the recent data I have seen on Skills shortages (Expert group on Skills, FAS) must be off the mark. As we are in for a long and deep recession in this country I cann't phathom what are the areas needing skills if I was put on the spot and asked that question and required to give a less than general response.

The usual suspects listed are IT, Science, Engineering. We can assume that the Financial Service Sector, Health, Childcare and Teaching are no longer going to be growth areas in the short to medium term.

There maybe scope to up-skill people academically from Level 4/5 on NQF to levels 7/8, but are we to hope that a well educated but under used workforce will make for happy people?

IT fundamentally exists to provide a service to business. As they cut costs they will cut their IT budgets. Consumer demand for computers can't recover until the job market picks up. Engineering is also hit by a construction downturn and a consumer downturn, together with possible cuts in spending on infrastructure. Don't know about science.

The reality is that the world economy has been based on a debt-funded bubble for some time now. No one knows if, how, when or where the next bubble will be blown so you can't really predict what area is best to get into. I think the only advice is for people to try to work at something they'll enjoy if that's possible. The labour market is not designed to make the workforce happy, either in recessions or in booms.

mallow said:

I think the only advice is for people to try to work at something they'll enjoy if that's possible. The labour market is not designed to make the workforce happy, either in recessions or in booms.

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Very wise... this is what parents & career guidance counsellors in schools should be directing students towards, as people usually thrive in jobs they enjoy which can lead on to other opportunities. Another thing to consider is that it's shouldn't be expected for people to be delirously happy EVERY day in their work, some days are great, some ok, and some not! A job that makes you happy MOST of the time is the one to aim for... and pays the rent or mortgage etc. obviously!

Digital media and technology are the future

mallow said:

IT fundamentally exists to provide a service to business. As they cut costs they will cut their IT budgets.

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That's a very narrow view of why IT exisits ( healthcare? transport? name an industry.....). Moreover, it's a simplistic view to say that a company can overall cut costs by simply slashing all budgets regardless.

I know of several Financial Services companies who have actually increased their investment in IT Systems and Services in order to ultimately decrease business wide head-count and improve efficency.

dtlyn said:

That's a very narrow view of why IT exisits ( healthcare? transport? name an industry.....). Moreover, it's a simplistic view to say that a company can overall cut costs by simply slashing all budgets regardless.

I know of several Financial Services companies who have actually increased their investment in IT Systems and Services in order to ultimately decrease business wide head-count and improve efficency.

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I didn't mention a view of why IT exists. That's a bit of an existentialist question! But the reasons why companies produce IT products and services is to make a profit. They do that by providing services to other profit making industries, the consumer (who I mentioned) or government (who I didn't mention for simplicity's sake) Your example of the financial services companies proves the point that IT serves industry. It helps businesses to make more profit by improving efficiency. Otherwise why would they pay for it?

I most certainly did not say that 'a company can overall cut costs by simply slashing all budgets regardless'. But it is true that if a company, for example, slashed all of its budgets to zero, it would have cut costs overall. It would also, obviously enough, have no business and therefore no profits. I think what you mean is that IT can help businesses to survive a downturn by making them more efficient. Nothing I said disputes that so I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with. I was simply noting that, in general, in recessions, at a certain point IT budgets do get slashed. In the current economic situation, there will be huge numbers of businesses who simply don't have either cash or credit to pay for IT, regardless of whether it would save them money to do so. Apart from the fact that many business owners may not be convinced that some improvement to their IT system would in fact bring efficiency improvements at a scale and within a time period which they are currently concerned about.