A LACK of specialist IT personnel is threatening the development of existing systems at some of Guernsey’s leading financial institutions.

A recruitment company with a division specialising in IT, telecommunications and electronics is calling for action.

A recent Confederation of Guernsey Industry survey asked members to consider the operational aspects of running a successful business here.

Staff retention and recruitment featured prominently, with IT skills cited as being in highest demand, along with accountancy, marketing and human resources.

Approved Personnel technical manager Andrew Cullen said that during his seven years in the industry, the demand for skills in the areas of IT, telecommunications and electronics had grown significantly.

‘At the moment our clients are well covered as regards candidates in helpdesk, desktop and infrastructure support, but less so when it comes to business and systems analysis, applications and software development,’ he said.

Mr Cullen said the problem was the training required to create such specialists.

Schools, the College of Further Education and other providers, including AP Courses, offer a variety of IT learning in mainstream brands such as Microsoft and Cisco and accounting packages such as Sage.

For others little-known outside the IT world, such as Globus and 4Series, which have an influence on a whole company, the only source of training is in-house.

‘It may not be crisis time yet,’ he said. ‘But unless steps are taken by the States to provide suitable training options and/or licences to admit qualified individuals, the needs of local companies will continue to be filled by contractors, with specialists being brought in and much of the money bleeding straight out of the island.’

Islanders are pursuing a career in IT, but there are many aspects to the industry and some are struggling to cope.

Problem areas are in analysis and development, where people are needed to create bespoke systems based on existing platforms rather than installing standard-version software. While many companies are aware of the importance of this and ensure their key IT staff keep their knowledge up to date, there is only a small pool of replacements for them to draw upon if staff move on or need to increase the size of their team.