E-skills UK, the employer-led Sector Skills Council for IT and Telecoms, has announced an initiative to try and transform the attitudes of young people to IT-related education and careers, and support universities in developing and promoting courses that reflect the needs of IT professional careers. 

The ‘Revitalise IT’ initiative, which is being supported by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, brings together employers, universities and schools to help prepare the UK’s future IT professionals.

Chief executive Karen Price says: “Strengthening relationships between employers, universities and schools is at the heart of e-skills UK’s campaign to make the UK world class in technology skills. We will work with universities to help them build on their success and identify with growth markets – such as the increasing need for business-orientated, customer-focused IT professionals. We will also work with schools and young people to raise awareness and understanding of a future in IT.”

Partners already committed to ‘Revitalise IT’ include Vodafone, Microsoft, LogicaCMG, the BBC, Cisco, Apple, Accenture and John Lewis, and the University of Kent, University of Greenwich, University of Reading, Oxford Brookes University, University College London and City University London.

The initiative will focus primarily on London and the South-East of England and will run from 2007-2009.