Distance learning has been cited as being the future of mid-career retraining and skills development, but with a plethora of qualifications to choose from, it can be difficult to narrow down which certificate will open more doors for newly qualified members of the IT community The traditional choice has been between the Government-backed NVQ system and vendor qualifications such as those created by the likes of Microsoft and Cisco

In a recent report by the Work Foundation, entitled Towards a global labour market Globalisation and the knowledge market, the issue of using skilled foreign workers to help plug skills gap in UK industries was explored

Recent research suggests that British Business requires 150,000 new entrants into IT each year Over the past few years the number of graduates in IT has halved to 20,000