November 29, 2006
Two third of the respondents agreed that the country needs more investment in education and training to maintain the current competitive economic position.
The U.K. public perceive offshoring to be an increasing threat with 82% believing enough jobs have moved offshore already, according to a survey by Deloitte and YouGov. In fact, only four percent of respondents support the continuation of offshoring and almost one in three (32%) believe U.K. companies should be forced to bring jobs back to the U.K.
The survey reveals, public attitudes towards offshoring have become more negative since the survey was initially conducted in January this year when 22% of respondents thought U.K. companies should be forced to bring jobs back to the U.K. In January 29% said, they could see the advantages of offshoring, or even thought it was a good thing, compared with just 13% now. Several announcements have been made in the past 10 months on plans to increase offshoring across a variety of sectors.
Sixty-five percent of respondents believes that investment in education and training is required for the U.K. to maintain global competitiveness — the next highest being more encouragement for small business start-ups and entrepreneurialism 57%.
According to the survey, in the near future financial services (32%) will be the leading sector of the country, followed by professional services (25%), media and creativity (26%) and telecommunications and technology combined at 24%.
http://www.globalservicesmedia.com/sections/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196600021