Thursday, July 6 2006 13:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Britain's growing dependence on Indian call centres and software experts is directly related to the dwindling number of students enrolling in computer related degrees in universities here.

A new report says that the situation has reached such alarming proportions that the British software industry is 'approaching meltdown' because of a skills shortage. The industry is estimated to contribute to 13 billion pounds to the British economy.

The report, Developing The Future, has been prepared by the British Computer Society and Lancaster University with inputs from eSkills, the Ovum consultancy, the Department of Trade and Industry, Amicus and Microsoft UK.

The report says that there has been a 50 percent drop in applications for computer-related degrees, a 60 percent drop in software engineering students and a 47 percent drop in systems engineering students.

In a press release quoted by The Guardian, Matt Bishop, senior director of Microsoft's Developer Platform Group, says: "Young people no longer regard software as cool."

Another factor is that the first generation of IT workers is reaching retirement age.

A review of letters pages in trade magazines indicate that many complain about programmers who are too old at 35 or 45, or overqualified, or know languages such as Cobol and Fortran, which are now deeply unfashionable.

The report also notes that the IT industry benefits from the hundreds of thousands of programmers churned out by universities in India and China. The press release also concedes that another '200,000 'basic' jobs will be off-shored by 2010'.

Meanwhile, banking major Barclays is to close sites in Birmingham and Hastings with some of the work carried out at the two centres to be outsourced to India. A total of 350 staff will be affected by the decision. The decision affects the asset and sales finance divisions of Barclays Business Banking and follows 1,200 job cuts announced by Barclays last week in its banking division.

Stephen Price, managing director of Barclays asset and sales finance, said: "The market is moving quickly and we have to move with it to ensure future success.

"Our customers have told us what they want a more slick and streamlined process. The changes will lead to reinvestment in our business infrastructure. This has not been an easy decision and we have looked carefully at all alternatives for the business".