editorial
COLUMN
Out in the cold or free at last ?
It ’ s been said that a week is a long time in politics but never before has it felt so resoundingly accurate . With the dust settling on the historic referendum result , the implications for the UK will be speculated on for months and even years .
It seems certain that there will be challenging times ahead for every industry ( at least in the short term ) but with so much uncertainty floating about , trying to make accurate predictions would appear to be an exercise in futility . What we can do , however , is speculate a bit !
The biggest danger for the IT infrastructure sector may come in the form of a growing skills shortage that could now be exacerbated by restricted access to EU workers . Within the IT sector many key roles are fulfilled by qualified EU nationals , filling the void left by a lack of adequately skilled UK workers . Without free movement , the fast diminishing talent pool could evaporate further , leaving tech companies with an almighty headache when it comes to recruiting the skilled workers they need . Those skilled EU nationals who were considering a move to a UK based IT company may feel that the move now represents something of a risk and could look elsewhere for their next career move . There is also the possibility that multi-national IT firms will consider moving their European headquarters out of the UK in order to guarantee ongoing exposure to the entire European market .
The ability to train the next generation of skilled tech workers could be in doubt as a substantial amount of research funding for universities in the UK comes from the EU . It ’ s been claimed that over a third of the current funds could be lost , impacting the ability of educational establishments to deliver the IT workers that the country so desperately needs . The current president of Universities UK recently told the House of Lords science and technology committee that Britain would lose influence as well as funding if it was outside the EU , stating that membership of the EU allows UK and European researchers to pool resources , expertise and data to achieve more together than they possibly could do alone .
Of course , going it alone may actually benefit the IT industry and the entire nation in the long term - the problem appears to be that nobody is quite sure how . Until article 50 is triggered and the negotiations begin in earnest , all we have is the continuing calls for calm and industry bodies advising us to adopt a ‘ business as usual ’ stance . What is certain is that the aftershocks from the leave vote will be felt by all of us and will reverberate around the entire IT industry for some time to come .
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Michael Crane Editor
Telegärtner UK Ltd Unit 1 – A1 ( M ) Business Centre , 151 Dixons Hill Road , Welham Green AL9 7JE
Tel . + 44 ( 0 ) 1707 636 600 Fax . + 44 ( 0 ) 1707 636 638 Email . info @ telegaertner . co . uk Web . www . telegaertner . co . uk