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Margaret Hodge, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment and Equal Opportunities, released the figures followinga parliamentary question from Sir Patrick Cormack, Conservative MP for South Staffordshire:
"To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign nationals have been granted permission to enter the UK on the basis of their qualifications in information technology in the last three years; and from which countries they have come."
The answer, revealing how many foreign IT specialists were granted work permits during 2000 (stating that the previous two year's figures were 'incomparable due to changes in the calculation system') was as follows:
1- India 11,474
2- United States of America 2,034
3- South Africa 748
4- Australia 708
5- Canada 377
6- New Zealand 358
7- Peoples Republic of China 221
8- Russia 158
9- Pakistan 132
10- Malaysia 111
Existing contractors in the UK have expressed concern that the Government is plundering developing countries of their much-prized, high-tech skills in their use of the fast-track visa system in a bid to fill the current skills shortage. It is also claimed that contractor's rates, as well as a general demand for their services, are falling as a consequence.
One contractor said: "Yes, we are in a global market. However, most other countries in the global market do not issue visas 'willy-nilly'. In other countries a job normally has to be proven to be advertised and unfilled before a foreign worker can be employed. New Labour are allowing this to be bypassed and this is a major scandal."
In reply to such concerns and addressing the broader issue of filling the skills shortage by outsourcing, Derek Langley, former Wipro Technologies CEO for Europe and current CEO of Hexware Europe, a company 'bringing Indian IT staff in every day,' said:
"The current skills shortage in the UK, we estimate this year is 200,000 just for software engineers. The rest of Europe is around 600,000. In the UK, most companies are outsourcing their main projects and offshore business has become huge - the largest players here are the Indian 'placing companies'. The problem grew in the last few months of last year, during the 'E-commerce revolution', and produced a much larger shortage of skilled people."
Speaking of the way in which the country is not helping the shortage by encouraging young people to pursue IT, he said, "The UK, and Europe in general, is just not training people in IT. Students are going back into 'arts and farts' - so the breeding ground for talent is stagnant and the skills shortage is growing. The only solution is India. India has a 4 year head-start with no exception. People can also now come in quickly due to the Government's fast-track system."
Derek, who accompanied Patricia Hewitt's E-envoy party to Bangalore last year continued, "India not only has a 'low-cost' (not 'cheap') advantage and has a very fast delivery cycle with the highest quality classifications in the world for software. The Indian standard is SEICMM system from the Software Engineering Institute and measures software development skills capabilities on five levels with five being the highest. There are 30 companies in the world that have a No. 5 accreditation, 40% of which are Indian, proving that India has the highest quality in the world.
"The 'machine' in India produces 75% IT graduates out of all of those who go into higher education each and every year, all backed by a private sector and a very strong backing and focus from the Government to grow its people."
Explaining his views on the moving of highly skilled individuals from their own developing country to the West and their delivery to end-users, he said, "Firstly, there is a strong marriage of languages as Indians speak good English and English is the international language of business. The bulk of their work is generally done off-shore. Contractors in India sell directly to the end user client or to agencies. Agencies don't have the resources so they come to us. We are not particularly interested in obtaining bodies, we are more interested in large contracts.
"The main reason they work abroad is because they want foreign IT experience, they then come back to put their skills back into their country- they're not dragged out forever."
Asked whether he thought that existing businesses are being replaced with allegedly cheaper labour from abroad such as Wipro's replacing IBM over the Scottish Parliament contract last December, he replied:
"There are a couple of reasons for that. Indian IT labour is not cheap. They earn a good wage in India comparatively. The Wipro/ Scottish Parliament situation happened for a number of reasons including cost, quality and speed - sometimes, to obtain these you have to go offshore.
"People coming into the UK are additions, not replacements. We are simply supplementing existing workers".
Related stories:
DfEE talk to Shout99 at Recruitment2000
Fast-Track rate cuts are coming
Fast track visas start a flood
More news on Fast Track Visa scheme
Wipro whips away Scottish Parliament IT contract
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Richard Powell
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