Information technology professionals are being forced "to climb a career ladder with the bottom rungs missing", the government-backed council for IT skills has warned. Karen Price, chief executive of e-skills UK, said "highly skilled" IT jobs such as project management and business analysis were thriving in Britain, but "many traditional entry-level IT roles are disappearing".

"This means that new IT professionals must be able to progress rapidly to demanding roles without access to the kind of jobs that would help them to build their skills and experience," she said.