Engineers, IT freelancers and other technical professionals who are struggling to find work in the UK may want to consider working in the Asia Pacific region.
Companies such as Intel are continuing to expand in APAC where they are investing in both new and existing factories. Intel currently has more than 450 engineering vacancies across its Asian facilities.
Another IT company, Altera, the FPGA and ASIC specialist, is headquartered in San Jose and yet it employs more people in Malaysia than it does at HQ.
Microsoft has been a significant employer in APAC for many years. As well as four major facilities in India, the software giant also has a lot of research operations in China and India.
IT and software development are amongst the fastest growing when it comes to job opportunities. Microsoft has developed its own IT Academy to provide IT resources and training to schools, but some people believe that qualifications alone aren’t enough. A professor from Northwestern Michigan University said he thought that employers want to see industry certifications as well as degrees.
India and China are still the leaders in offshore IT outsourcing in APAC but countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam are starting to invest heavily in the sector and could become credible alternatives for limited company contractors.
A report by Gartner, a leading IT research and advisory group, says that although India is still growing when it comes to exporting IT services, it has seen a decrease in its share of the worldwide market. India is by no means giving up, though. Wipro, a leading service provider has taken on 2,500 engineering graduates already this year and another 1300 under its Academy of Software Excellence program.
And India’s Department of Information Technology is thinking about creating a unit to attract multi-billion dollar investments in manufacturing IT hardware, an industry valued at $43 billion. The department hopes it can increase this to $155 billion over the next few decades.
© 2010 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Image: Flash Plane Spotting at LAX by bravoinsd
