UK board rooms lacking IT knowledge

More bad news for the UK on the IT front, this time by way of a damming survey from Microsoft, who surveyed 500 business leaders and “found that a knowledge of information technology (IT) was seen as the seventh most important workplace skill.”

So what does the 21st century leading business man in the UK think is more important that computer skills?

• Team work
• Interpersonal skills
• Initiative

Not surprisingly Microsoft, and in particular Bill Gates disagreed:

“One of the most important changes of the last 30 years is that digital technology has transformed almost everyone into an information worker,” said Mr Gates.

“In almost every job now, people use software and work with information to enable their organization to operate more effectively.”

And I tend to agree. Sure the other attributes are important but there is no point to being on a team that doesn’t know what you are doing, or being a great communicator with nothing to communicate.

So what is the response of the UK’s dynamic IT literate government? “It plans to spend £20m over three years on TV, print and poster adverts aimed at persuading people of their natural ability to succeed. ” That is right – no SMS advertising campaign, awareness posts on Facebook etc just some good old fashioned posters. That just about says it all really!

Via [BBC]