Mark Crosby has an unusual list of vacancies at the Exhibit IT recruitment fair on October 5 and 6. "We're looking for a systems analyst in the Maldives and a database manager in Ethiopia," he says. As placement advisor for the maths, science and IT team at the Voluntary Service Organisation (VSO), his stand will be sitting between more traditional recruiters like IBM and Logica.
His skill requirements may sound familiar to anyone in the IT business. "You need a commitment to sharing your skills - not going out there to change the world. Instead we look for people who can deal with frustrations. Possibly they won't achieve what they want to do in the first three months," he says.
The challenge of working in the third world will require similar skills to those his fellow standholders seek. Exhibit -which is being held for the first time at the Business Design Centre in Islington - will be looking for experienced IT professionals in preference to first-timers because it is some traditional skills that are most in demand.
"Come another year and we will be looking for the whiz-kids with web skills. But overseas, often they're looking for an entire project team in one person," says Crosby. "Most of the jobs involve an element of training other people, and as well as being able to do your job you'll need some maintenance experience, good general IT skills."
Permanent recruitment in the IT sector is struggling, whether for network managers in the Maldives or Marlow. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation's August Report On Jobs, says "the availability of permanent staff deteriorated for the 15th successive month and at the fastest rate since June 1998".
The REC report shows that for permanent jobs, the IT sector has a strength of demand second only to the nursing profession. This contrasts with the state of the contract recruitment market, in which the IT sector ranks only seventh, behind secretarial, catering and construction.
According to research by Cisco, by 2002 there will be a shortage of 600,000 qualified networking professionals in Europe. In the UK e-commerce industry alone, the shortage will be 81,000.
VSO has 55 IT people overseas, while Reuters has future recruitment targets four times the size. Says Melanie Osborn, manager at Reuters recruitment centre: "We need people with new technologies, people with older skills, good graduates, people with potential."
The company cannot get enough experienced project managers with skills in "old-fashioned" languages and applications. "Ideally it's what everybody wants. But with the market as it is, we have to accept we might not get them. Overall, we need 200_ but we will settle for 40 or 50 people immediately," she says.
While the UK's workforce is retraining in new languages and applications, the practical skills and project management experience that companies value cannot be taught quickly. Osborn says in her chosen areas, there aren't 200 people in the UK available.
Other recruiters are resorting to unusual solutions. At call centre specialist Datapoint, new chief executive David Berger is calling his old executives back. Having set up Datapoint in 1984, many of Berger's protégés left during the 1990s. Now, although call centres are packed with new technology, Berger knows the skills he can't find.
"Look at the management of Aspect, BT, Siemens, there are ex-Datapoint people everywhere," he says. "The time is now for anyone who wants to come back to us_ very few people have those in-depth skills, and we want people who understand concepts like relationship management."
ICL has recruited 20 project managers from the forces, and expects to find another 20 this year. Alistair Johnson, last year a captain in the Royal Engineers, is now a project manager with ICL. "There are a lot of background skills like decision-making and man-management that come with experience. In the army, we were force-fed those skills from day one," he says.
By comparison, he lacked IT skills but with successful projects in data warehousing behind him, he's proved that he can learn new tricks.
ICL is only one company making up its shortfall with staff who don't necessarily have the right certificates, but have the right attitude and experience in the workplace. Johnson keeps in touch with former colleagues now employed at IBM Cisco, NTL and Cable & Wireless.
Back at the VSO, Crosby believes it's never too late. "We've just sent someone over to Gambia who's 65," he says. "He's not got any qualifications, just 40 years' experience."
