Companies winning government-funded IT contracts will have to fulfil a commitment to skills training, Skills Secretary John Denham announced today. At a summit held today, the Secretary of State met the government's Chief Information Officer, John Suffolk, and leading IT industry representatives to discuss how the government and industry can work together to promote investment in skills in the IT sector through procurement.

At present, nearly £14bn of government money is spent on procuring IT services - the focus is now on using this money to help improve the skills base of the IT workforce and the government's Chief Information Officers have committed all government departments and agencies to look at requiring successful contractors to have a development plan in place for their workforce. Speaking at today’s summit, Skills Secretary John Denham said: "In tough economic times like these, there is a danger that employers will reduce their investment in the skills of their employees as they look to cut costs.

But research shows that companies who don't train are 2.5 times more likely to fail than those who do. "A failure to train now will mean that when the economy begins to grow again we will not have the skilled workers we need to seize those opportunities that growth presents,” he said.

Today's move is the latest in a radical shake-up of the skills and training system instigated by John Denham to tackle expected skills shortages.