Still shortage of IT graduates despite record-high intake

Although the start of studies is characterized by significantly more admissions to the country's IT programmes, it is still far from enough - and this is especially true in relation to women, is the verdict from one of Denmark's largest IT consultancies. Here, they fear a drought-like situation in 2030, when companies will lack 20,000 qualified IT employees - and the demand can already be felt among the young new graduates, says one of the sought-after candidates.

This month, 625 more students than last year will enter one of the many Danish IT programmes at ITU, DTU and AAU, among others, according to figures from the IT Industry. But despite an increase of 10% compared to last year, there are still far too few study places to meet tomorrow's demand for IT talents, according to the consulting firm Epico, which with more than 500 Danish IT consultants is one of the country's largest. Here, especially in the company's NextGen department, they keep a close eye on this year's intake and the start of the educations, as they focus on equipping young talents for a long-term IT career in the labour market:

"We can only conclude that the business community continues to cry out for qualified labour with a background in IT and STEM education. It is not acceptable for the programmes to outright reject more qualified applicants due to a lack of study places, when we and the customers here in the business community will be on the threshold of a drought-like situation in terms of resources. A survey by the Confederation of Danish Industry's Business Panel shows that more than 40 per cent of companies consider labour shortages to be a growth barrier for them in 2023. That is precisely why it is so important that politicians secure more student places throughout the country," says Sara Høyer Tækker, Head of Communications at Epico, referring to the IT Industry's annual IT Barometer from March 2023, which shows that Denmark will still lack 20,000 qualified IT employees in 2030.

Sara Høyer Tækker
Head of Marketing and Communication, Epico

Newly graduated IT woman: "It was the shortest summer vacation of my life"

Over the spring and summer, the debate about the lack of young IT talents has intensified, and one of those who the statistics say there are too few of is 27-year-old Caroline Jensen, who today is one of Epico NextGen's young IT talents. After completing her master's degree in IT and Business Intelligence at Aarhus University, she was quickly contacted by EPICO NextGen and initiated a dialogue, where she experienced that it was herself who could make demands for job preferences and wishes for the future, as it is embedded in Epico NextGen's concept to think long-term career-wise. And according to Caroline Jensen, the experience of being professionally courted and quickly transitioning from study to working life has been one of the best things she, as a graduate, could wish for:

"My fellow students and I had jobs pretty much immediately after graduation, and I had already landed a job before I had handed in my master's thesis. It was the shortest summer vacation of my life, because I already started working on August 1st, so the transition from study to working life went incredibly fast," says Caroline Jensen, who recommends other young people to consider a future in the IT world if you prioritize job security and the opportunity to work with something meaningful, highly.

The industry: Final gender distribution gave "long nose"

At the IT Industry, Director of Policy and Communication, Mette Lundberg, is pleased that more young people are choosing the IT educations, although they agree with Epico's long-term concern: Because the intake among young people - and especially women - is still far too low, and the IT Industry points out that there are a number of political agreements in particular on the resizing and relocation of education to other geographical parts of Denmark. which sets a ceiling for admission to the IT programmes:

"This year, even more qualified young people have been rejected from an IT education, and young people and the business community are left with a long nose. From the political side, we need to take a serious look at the resizing and relocation agreements. Because even though there are a lot of companies and IT workplaces outside the big cities and it can therefore also make good sense to have IT educations there, we just have to acknowledge that young people seek out the cities after finishing high school because they want to be part of a large and vibrant study environment. This means that a number of IT educations, especially in the big cities, have to be turned away from interested young people. There is a need for other political measures, so we offer study places where young people go to study, so that supply and demand will be much better connected," is the message from the IT Industry, which is also left with a disappointment when it comes to getting more young women to choose an IT education:

"We had hoped that this year we would have cracked the code and finally get more women into the IT programmes, because it was not until the summer that there were positive signals from several of the country's educational institutions about more female applicants. But when the admission figures came, it actually turned out that the proportion of female IT students overall was the status quo. Namely 33%, which is exactly the same as last year. So even though many have made a great effort, the admission figure is proof that it is not good enough and that more is needed," says Mette Lundberg.