Service Providers of the Information Society - High Training Intensity and Great Need for Advanced Training

The training intensity among IT-related service providers is high: almost 80 per cent of all companies in this economic sector train apprentices in one or more professions. Displaying a training intensity of 90 per cent, telecommunications service providers lead in the field of vocational training, whereas only about two thirds of the architects and business consultants train new recruits.

Almost half of all companies of the information society offer vocational training in one or more IT professions. As expected, telecommunications service providers and computer service providers and lessees most frequently offer IT training. Thus, more than 80 per cent of telecommunications service providers and almost 80 per cent of the computer service providers and lessees train new recruits in IT professions.

These are the findings of a business survey among service providers of the information society conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, in collaboration with Creditreform, Neuss, in November and December 2006.

Approximately 20 per cent of the IT-related service providers expect an increasing number of trainees in the coming three years. In this context, particularly companies of the research and development sector as well as business consultancies estimate a positive development. About 50 per cent of the IT-related service providers that did not hire any trainees in 2006 state that there was no need for new staff. Approximately 10 per cent of the companies without apprentices were in need of trainees but had difficulty finding qualified applicants. This applies in particular to companies of the branches tax consultancy and research and development. Another 10 per cent of the companies of this economic sector that did not hire any trainees in 2006 were in need of apprentices but shied at the training efforts. This is the reason why about half of the telecommunications service providers and more than a third of the tax consultants did not take on any trainees in 2006.

In 2006, about 75 per cent of the IT-related service providers confirmed the need for advanced training. The majority of the companies in this economic sector were of the opinion that employees with years of professional experience do have the need for such training. In contrast to this, only about half of the companies considered extra training to be necessary after the initial training. In 2006, approximately 75 per cent of the companies in the regarded sector had the need for training during the initial vocational education. Only computer service providers and lessees are below average. Approximately half of them had the need for training during the initial vocational education.

In addition to traditional training measures, e-learning, i.e. training measures based on new media, can be introduced to meet the demand for advanced training. In about a third of the companies in this economic sector, employees have participated in e-learning courses. In this regard, companies of the branches telecommunications, tax consultancy and accounting as well as business consultancy play a pioneering role. More than two thirds of the enterprises in these branches have made use of e-learning for training purposes. However, in only 20 per cent of the companies of the advertising industry, employees have participated in advanced training.

The business survey by ZEW/Creditreform

About 800 firms participate in this quarterly survey. The economic sector IT-related service providers comprises the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) service providers (firms in the branches of software and IT services, ICT-specialised trade as well as telecommunication services) and knowledge intensive service providers (firms in the branches of tax consultancy and accounting, management consultancy, architecture, technical consultancy and planning, research and development as well as advertising).

Overview of the ZEW/Creditreform business survey

Further information (in German language only)

Remark on projection

To generate a representative analysis, the ZEW is projecting the answers of the firms participating in the survey with their shares of total turnover realized in the sector of the German IT related service providers.

Contact

Dr. Jenny Meyer, E-mail: meyer@zew.de