UK second in Europe for tech training

The UK's technology workers are more likely to get training than their peers in all other European countries apart from Denmark, according to research.

More than one in four (26 percent) of IT professionals in the UK had received training in the month prior to being surveyed, against a European average of 15 percent, research from e-skills UK and the European Commission's statistical office, Eurostat, reveals.

Belgian IT staff are among the least likely to receive job-related education or training; six percent said they had received such training in the four weeks prior to being surveyed in the third quarter of 2006.

Denmark has trained 27 percent of IT professionals in the four-week period concerned, the research covering the original group of 15 EU member states reveals.

Karen Price, chief executive of e-skills UK, said it is "very encouraging" that the UK is among Europe's leaders in terms of investment in IT professional skills but warned that it is vital the country does not become "complacent" over training.

The vast majority of IT staff working in the EU are male, with women representing less than one in five of the workforce across Europe. That figure drops to less than one in 10 for Belgium, Greece, Luxembourg and Portugal.

Less than one-sixth (14 percent) of the UK's IT staff are women. Ireland leads the rankings with a 19 percent female workforce, according to the e-skills UK Quarterly Review of the ICT Labour Market for the first quarter in 2007.

Previous research has found women are abandoning technology careers, with many put off by the long hours and lack of flexible working.