Number of trained IT professionals to grow following Olympics investment

The IT and telecoms market is currently one of the strongest in the UK, with the number of advertised vacancies on the rise and the competition for skilled staff increasingly intensifying. And it would seem that supply could soon start to meet demand, as the pool of trained professionals is set to grow by autumn next year, following a recent update from the London 2012 Olympic Games organisers.

At the launch of the Olympics’ Technology Operations Centre (TOC), it was announced that 405 IT staff have been trained to work at the site, giving them valuable experience in a fast-paced technology environment. Responsibility for the operation of the centre sits with Atos, the Games’ worldwide information technology partner, and Patrick Adiba, Atos’ Vice President, Olympic Games and Major Events, says working at the TOC will be a good first step on the ladder for entry-level workers. He added that the company is using the Olympics to give opportunities to graduates and students, so that they can gain experience of working in a high-pressure operational centre.

CIO for the London Olympics, Gerry Pennell, says that while several of the TOC staff have permanent roles with the Olympics’ technology partners, there will be a large group of them who will be unemployed after the Games. The Olympics committee has a programme in place to help these workers go on to find new jobs, but for any companies out there looking to boost their IT departments with professionally training staff, they will be ripe for the picking.

Pennell believes these workers will be perfectly suited to employment within a technology start-up as they will know what it’s like to work within a team that has grown significantly in a very short space of time. They will also have experience of working in an environment where systems are being tested, which is what is currently happening at the TOC, and of working in a centre where they will need to meet operational requirements, in this case during the Games themselves.

According to the most recent report from the e-skills Labour Market Bulletin, the job market in the IT sector is growing – the e-skills Bulletin pulls together data from government and private sources to provide a definitive source of information about the demand and supply of ICT labour and skills in the UK – and so with employment reaching record levels and demand for employees exceeding supply, it looks like the release of more than 400 skilled IT workers into the job market, has been extremely well timed.