Over 30,000 UK IT work permits have been granted to foreign computer experts within the last year-and-a-half, according to exclusive data obtained by Contractor UK under the Freedom of Information Act. More than 80 % of the 30,090 permits approved between January 2004 and June this year went to Indian computer experts, flocking to British shores as software engineers, system analysts and ‘other IT related’ occupants. The grand total of 24,764 Indian nationals arriving in the UK dwarfed the second highest number of entrants, who originated from the United States. Just over 1,700 American IT managers, engineers and techies snapped up work permits within the same year-and-a-half period.

IT entrants from other non-EU countries obtained comparatively few work permits in the Home Office league table, with Australian, South African, Canadian and Japanese specialists assuming third, fourth, fifth and sixth places respectively. Alongside 12 other countries, the combined data shows permits to work in UK IT departments were issued at a rate of 410 every week, for the 12 months of 2004.

The weekly average up until mid-2005 is a lesser 337 permits, but this is due to increase rapidly over the next six months, if recruitment of overseas talent follows the same pattern seen last year. Crucially, there was a 35 % rise in the number of foreign computer experts entering the UK in the second half of 2004(compared to the first), taking the total number of annual approvals to 24,828. This was dwarfed in 2001 and 2002, when nearly 27,000 and 25,600 UK IT work permits were granted respectfully. India and the US achieved unparalleled rates of approvals throughout.

Paul Taylor, UK managing director of Hudson IT, says two “key drivers” inspire swathes of Indian nationals to join British technology departments. “Essentially it’s about remuneration. Indian IT pros, whether they seek contract or permanent work, can obviously earn a lot more in the UK than at home. If we set aside the quality of life lure of the UK, remuneration probably is more important than anything else as a key driver,” said Taylor.

John Kell, the Professional Contractors Group’s political researcher, supports the IT director’s view, citing homeland rates for Indian IT workers ranging from just £4,000 to £7,000 a year.

Taylor adds the second motivational factor for Indian techies is a direct and adverse result of the offshore outsourcing process, which according to the PCG, is a sure-sign an employer is capable of ‘on-shoring’ overseas talent. “The type of work currently being outsourced tends to be low level IT work, or helpdesk back office roles, including basic coding,” said Taylor. “So increasingly, British-based IT professionals need to up-skill their expertise. This is crucial, as Indian technologists begin to get fed up with doing lower-end IT jobs, knowing they can come to the UK, snap up more advanced training, more cutting edge business skills and more senior IT work, and of course, a premium salary to reflect these senior opportunities.” Mr Taylor, who sits on the executive board at the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo), said recent high profile IT contracts in the UK had given Indian nationals another reason to work on British shores. “Atos Origin just won the London 2012 Olympic Games IT contract, and has stated quite publicly they are fearful of how they will fill thousands of technology roles. The UK is producing a lot of work for the overseas workforce to attack.”

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation told Contractor UK that a combination of reasons had pushed both US and Indian IT workers towards Britain, more so than their global peers. Tom Hadley, its director of external relations, explains: “The sheer weight of approvals that India commands points to language as a key issue. Although IT is very technical area, being able to speak everyday language is vital, which Indian nationals – and their US counterparts, are likely to demonstrate well, offering employers good English language skills. “But the influx of Indian and American IT workers is also because of existing social and historical reasons,” insists Hadley.

“Often with immigration, people go where they already have family and contacts. India has a fairly well educated workforce, willing to travel and they adapt very well wherever they settle. This is further enabled by an existing social network in the UK that makes Indian immigrants comfortable with relocation, and even more tempted to move.”

Hudson Recruitment confirmed steady progress in the quality of English language spoken by Indian nationals had enabled them, more so than any other non-EU worker, to make a beeline for Britain. “English has become almost a second language for Indian workers, the quality has improved steadily, whereas Brazil and the also-rans like Thailand and Japan just don’t offer employers the level of fluency and understanding of language that Indian and US nationals provide.”

In addition, the PCG told CUK that one critical component explaining India’s dominance of the IT work permit scheme was the country’s improving education system.

“India has very close historical ties with the West, especially the UK of course,” said Kell . “Combine this with its huge number of English-speaking IT graduates – there were 184,000 in 2004 - and it’s clear that Indians posses the skills and the necessary language.”

Back in the UK, the public and private sectors’ appeal for business-savvy IT professionals had made American workers more in demand in British companies, according to REC. Similar to Indian technologists, IT experts in the US were “clued up” as to the demands and opportunities available in the UK, the Confederation said, yet there was a crucial difference in their offering. “It’s no surprise that IT managers, marketers, sales managers and engineers were the highest British entrants from the US,” said Hadley. “A lot of the big US-based IT companies have fairly good packages for sending their experts around the world, transferring skills and using the opportunity to communicate their head office corporate culture to a global audience.”

Ironically, the more management-based skills on offer from American professionals are the very specialisms that Indians are coming to the UK to learn, said Taylor.

“The skills traditionally associated with North American business and IT experts are what they [Indian nationals] want to develop over here,” said the ATSCo exec, adding , “So they can become the BAs of the future.”

One of the ‘big US-based IT providers,’ alluded to by REC, told Contractor UK they had on-shored their overseas staff as a strategy to improve the implementation of software and IT systems.

“The trend is not new, it has existed for years and is called immigration, short term or long term,” said Dr. Adam Kolowa, CEO of Parasoft Corporation.

“It is related to real ‘offshoring.’ The people who work on the systems offshore, are the best to deploy them. They know the code and they can install and maintain this code. That is why they are brought to the onshore site. This is what IBM, and Oracle have been doing in Europe for years; they bring their own technicians to install their products.

“We have been doing it for many years” continued Kolowa. “The reason for it is not the cost. It is that these people know the code. The cost was actually considered when we decided to develop projects offshore and this process is just a consequence of that decision.”

The influx of 30,090 IT workers from India, the States and 12 non-EU nations into Britain emerges at a time when 30,000 UK IT professionals are ‘sitting on the bench,’ according to figures from e-skills and PCG.

Hudson Recruitment said employers were not to blame for turning to overseas talent. “Those 30,000 IT pros currently bench-sitting should consider their skills: Are they making sure they have up-to-date, cutting-edge skills that employers actually need in their companies?” asked the agent. “Probably not, older IT contractors on the bench are seen by companies as out of the market, and not keeping ahead of skills training.”

Yet Simon Juden, PCG director, said the FOI data combined with their own figures combined to make harrowing reading for the holiday season.
“Although the IT market has improved over the past year, the ratio of IT unemployment against the number of work permits issued in the sector is still very high compared to other sectors,” Juden told CUK.

“Additionally, and more worryingly, IT employment over the years has also been in decline, apart from the last year when there has been marginal improvement.”

Reacting to the figures, the REC said agents cared little about the contract or permanent worker’s country of origin, and more about the candidate’s skills set.

If too many foreign IT experts were entering the UK, then that was a matter for Government to address in its 16–week consultation on new work permits policy, the Confederation said.

“Certainly it shouldn’t be the responsibility of agents or employers to recruit one UK-based professional – or - one non-EU–based professional necessarily if people have genuine Work Permits,” said Hadley.

“As long as foreign workers are legally entitled to be in the UK, it would be discriminatory of agents to put a UK-based person forward for a technical role, if they have not got the skills for the job.

“[The 30,000 unemployed] is not really an issue for the REC, as increasingly the focus of our work is to ensure candidates are put forward on their skills. Case-by-case, good agents look at who is the best candidate for the job, and if the Work Permit is valid, then it is the responsibility of agents to put the best candidate forward, rather than favouring anybody else.”