SMEs should be able to hire skilled IT talent from outside of EU easily, UK government report

According to United Kingdom’s Science and Technology Committee’s report, there is a need to review immigration policies so that the IT skills shortage in the country can be addressed. The report added that policies should be made convenient for SMEs to hire talented people from outside the EU. The shortage in skills is said to be causing Britain to lose £63bn per year in GDP.

One of the crucial recommendations of the report is that a need to hire migrants in IT jobs via Tier 2 visas should be reviewed.

Although the UK government recently implemented changes to help SMEs hire talented workers from outside the EU, the report says that the new rules do not include companies which have 20 employees or fewer.

Nicola Blackwood, Science and Technology Committee Chairwoman, says that UK is the leader in Europe in the IT sector, but the country needs to take collective action so as to not lag behind. Lauding the government’s action taken till now, the report says it needs to go further.

Even as the government introduced roles such as system engineer, cyber security specialist, IT product manager and data scientist to the shortage occupation list of Tier 2 visas, this choice is available only to select businesses.

Not just smaller companies, but companies whose stakes of 25 percent are owned by larger companies are also not able to take advantage of Tier 2 visas.

Highly skilled IT workers from India can look to migrate to the UK because of the skills’ shortage there in this particular sector. Y-Axis, with its 17 offices across India, can advise and assist you if you are looking to work and reside in Britain.