A united nation of technologists

New Zealand high schools are still sending kids the wrong message about careers in ICT, forcing recruiters to look internationally to fill the talent shortfall.

That’s the message from Josh Comrie, managing director of ICT recruitment firm Potentia, who says his business has been focusing more and more on global markets, even hiring a specialist ‘global associate’ to establish and grow international talent channels for the company.

"The market only has two feeders: graduates and immigrants,” Comrie says, "and graduates have dropped from 2005 to 2010 by around 45%.”

The reason for the drop is the approach taken to ICT at a high school level, Comrie says.

"High schools are still treating computing as a trade, so it’s down the back end of the school... and it attracts people heading down that manual, problem-solving path rather than those heading down the business path.

"When they think business they think law and accountancy... where more than half of the roles in tech today are business roles, not tech roles.”

To help change the perception, Potentia has signed on as a sponsor for the ICT-Connect In Schools project being run by the New Zealand Computer Society (about to become the New Zealand Institute of IT Professionals).

In the meantime, though, the company is looking offshore, with representative Ian Scott currently preparing for two ‘Opportunities in NZ’ expos being held in the UK.

This will be the second time Potentia has attended the expos, which Comrie says provide a ‘focal point’ for the company’s efforts.

As well as utilising the ‘marketing machine’ behind the expos, Potentia is also using its own avenues, including email and social networks, to try and attract candidates to the show.

Once there, the company will talk candidates through the work and lifestyle benefits, explain the process of becoming registered to work here, and even offer a ‘family move in a box’.

"The question you ask everybody you see there is, ‘is New Zealand a country you’d like to move to?’” Comrie says.

"For around half the response is, ‘I don’t mind where I go, I just want out of this place.”

Kiwi employers are by and large open minded about employing people from overseas; Comrie says he knows of one operation which boasts of having 85 staff and 36 nationalities.

Then there are the expat kiwis who may be tempted to come home, Comrie adds.

"For kiwis living overseas, where they tend to get their knowledge and information about the local market is the press. The press is largely the Herald, and they are largely a doom and gloom merchant.

"When we’re able to present to them we can tell them the situation here is actually quite different.”