Offshore outsourcing poses such a significant threat to British jobs that forecasts have suggested that the UK will be without an IT industry by 2016.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Richard Holway, director of telecoms and software consultancy Ovum, said that with IT jobs increasingly being offshored, without heavy investment in skills and training the UK IT industry will be under serious threat from economies such as India and China.

‘Growth in the use of offshore resources is accelerating, with many companies expecting to double offshore staff in 2006 and beyond,’ Mr Holway said.

Indeed, Ovum’s latest study showed that by 2020 some 40 per cent of the UK IT services industry by revenue and 60 per cent by staff numbers will have been offshored.

‘I don’t think we will have an IT sector in ten years’ time; or at least nothing compared to what we have now and that is a shadow of what we had 20 years ago,’ Mr Holway concluded.

From: http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=conWebDoc.8872