A major new piece of national research into students' thinking about careers in IT reveals that the vast majority consider the IT sector to have a bright future with good prospects for highly paid jobs.
The research, based on nearly 2000 responses from undergraduates, found that the single most important reason for students not wishing to enter the sector was their perception that working in IT would be boring.
This research released today by CRAC: The Career Development Organisation, in its Sector Intelligence series, launched at the British Computer Society (BCS), comes at a time when half of IT employers are failing to fill their vacancies and educators are worried about falling numbers studying computing.
"Over 60% of non-computing students cited boring work as the main reason they would not join the sector," reports CRAC Development Director Robin Mellors-Bourne. "Employers should be able to counter that kind of perception. We found that very few of the students hold negative perceptions about the IT profession or its people."
The research also revealed significant differences in motivation for the career choices made by male and female students and the sorts of jobs that would attract them.
While female computing students were every bit as keen as their male counterparts to work in the sector, this was not the case for students in other disciplines.
"The survey suggests that many women will be attracted by the impact that IT projects have in other sectors and areas of life, while the men tend to like the technical projects" says Mellors-Bourne.
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