Sponsor's Message

Now, while this might sound like a great idea, I seem to recall that last time I investigated, I found that a lot of good Kiwi IT workers were contemplating going overseas due to a lack of suitable opportunities here in Godzone.

Have things changed so dramatically in the past year or so that we're now constrained by a lack of good IT talent?

What's happened to all those folks who (in the heady days of the dot-com boom) decided that a CompSci degree was their goal?

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination. 7

Well a quick check over at Job Universe seems to indicate that there are nearly 600 vacancies on the books there so maybe we are experiencing a skills-drought.

Encouraging immigrant workers is one way to address this skills shortage in the short term but what are we doing with a view to the longer-game?

Let's face it, our performance in knowledge-based industries so far is pretty dismal. Sure, there are standout exceptions (such as Rakon, etc), but on the whole we're really a long way behind countries like Ireland, Israel, Singapore, the USA and even China.

As a nation, we're still stuck in the 20th century. I see ads on TV encouraging people to become dairy farmers -- but none that are promoting a career in IT with the same gusto.

By encouraging a raft of immigrant IT workers to make there home here in NZ, without also fostering the whole ITC sector, are we not risking the situation where, in five years or so, we end up with a lot of IT-literate taxi foreign drivers? People who can code the most complex algorithm into perfect C++ or Java but have trouble speaking English may become the next generation of under-valued workers.

Don't get me wrong -- I've got nothing against importing the skills we need and over the years I've met and befriended many immigrant IT professionals. Without exception they've been very nice folks -- good at their jobs and great fun.

However, is it fair to bring all these people in to fulfil what may be a short-term skills crisis -- while not providing the environment needed to see NZ's KBE grow as it should?

Remember that we're still bitching about Telecom's 2nd-world DSL performance and the government is yet to commit to actually fixing the problem by taking some clearly defined action.

Quite frankly, I don't think it's fair to bring people to NZ with the promise of a great job unless we can also ensure them that those jobs will be part of a growing sector of the economy. Likewise, if the ITC sector does fail to grow as it should, what are our own young graduates going to do when they leave university?

Are you an ITC worker who's found it hard to find a good job recently?

Could it be that immigrant ITC workers could displace local workers by accepting positions at a lower rate of pay than most Kiwis would consider to be reasonable?

Will it be Kiwi ITC graduates who end up driving taxis, while immigrant workers do the work for half-price?

Tell us your story...

Lighten Up
Time for more mirth and mayhem from the wacky-wide web.

Remember those knock-knock jokes? Well this site claims to have a list of *real* names that would work well in such a context.

Come on, that's awful -- where are all the good links folks?

Tell us all and see what others have to say in The Aardvark Forums

If you feel that this is a good thing and/or you hold a "geniune affection" for yours truly -- then you are welcome to gift me some money using the buttons provided. In gifting this money you accept that no goods, service or other consideration is offered, provided, accepted or anticipated in return. Just click on the button to gift whatever you can afford. NOTE: PayPal bills in US dollars so don't accidentally gift more than what you were intending :-)

Contacting Aardvark
I'm always happy to hear from readers, whether they're delivering brickbats, bouquets or news tip-offs. If you'd like to contact me directly, please this form. If you're happy for me to republish your comments then please be sure and select For Publication.

Other media organisations seeking more information or republication rights are also invited to contact me.

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Linking Policy
Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!