Jersey businessman wants better IT education

The boss of a Jersey IT consultancy has said school leavers do not have the right skills to work in the industry.

Mark Loane, managing director of C5 Alliance, said there were lots of IT jobs available but not the skilled people to take them.

Jon Tarrant, Jersey e-learning manager, said the curriculum was designed to give students more well-rounded skills.

He said companies could be used to play a part in developing IT skills beyond the curriculum.

Mr Loane said he was working with other IT companies to put together a forum to improve technology education.

Mr Tarrant said the forum would be a welcome addition to the existing curriculum as it would help technology education and develop skills the workforce need.

He said: "I am putting a proposal forward to bring various initiatives together to act as a single body that acts as a representative of the IT industry, looking at education and helping them move forward with better skills."

Mr Tarrant said: "I think the first thing we need to do is celebrate the successes of the ICT curriculum because our students do very well in it.

"At GCSE last year we had nearly 70% of students get A* to C so we clearly have a very high level of aptitude and ability."