Tech sector growth could be threatened by skill shortages caused by the recession, according to an IT entrepreneur.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) last week announced GDP growth of 0.8% between July and September this year – the fastest growth for three years.
But founder of cloud infrastructure specialists ANS Group, Scott Fletcher, warned that as the economy grows once more, all industries will experience a shortage of skilled workers after few new workers were taken on and trained up during hard times.
He said his firm has created its own ‘Cloud Academy’ to tackle the issue, providing training for around 60 apprentices in cloud technology each year, with five joining the company per month.
"Our growth is dependent upon being able to recruit high quality individuals, with the working knowledge and expertise to deliver solutions that often exceed our customer’s expectations," added Fletcher.
He said there are further plans for an ANS apprenticeship academy, which will accept candidates sponsored by other IT businesses.
The entrepreneur recently became a non-executive director of the University of Manchester’s technology transfer company UM13.
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Its CEO, Clive Rowland, said: "We are always open to supplementing our in-house technology transfer expertise with experienced entrepreneurs who know what it is like to build a successful company from scratch and Scott fits that bill perfectly."
