10 January 2006 Almost half of the IT graduates leaving university believe their courses have ill-equipped them to find employment, with many regretting not getting jobs straight from school.

A survey of IT graduates by recruitment agency FDM found that nearly half (46%) believed their degrees did not provide them with necessary IT skills – particularly in areas such as .Net and Java programming.

Furthermore 41% said that given their time again, they would have skipped university and entered the job market straight from school.

University courses need to become more vocational, and the skills issue needs to be addressed at a national level, said Rod Flavell, CEO of FDM: “The e-Skills Council needs to urgently address the issue of universities failing to offer training in the latest programming languages.”

The employer-led e-Skills UK is licensed by the Government to lead training and development within the technology sector.

It has developed an Information Technology for Business degree course in conjunction with a number of large businesses including Ford, Morgan Stanley and Norwich Union. The course is currently run at three universities: the University of Central England; Northumbria University; and the University of Greenwich.

But unless more is done to equip graduates with the necessary skills, degree courses risk becoming irrelevant said Flavell. “More people than ever are open to the idea of vocational training to get the skills they need.”