4.5 ICT Skills
Why is it significant?
Businesses need to be equipped with sufficient skills to take full advantage of ICT opportunities such as e-commerce.
	How does the UK perform?
	The International Benchmarking Study (2003) asked companies whether the ICT skills available within the company met their business needs. Although only 18 per cent of UK companies felt their business needs were ‘fully met’ by their existing ICT skills, the proportion rose to 79 per cent for those who thought the ICT skills ‘mostly met’ their needs. Only the US was higher, with France and Japan a very long way behind (chart 4.5.1).
	Companies were also asked if the business skills available within the company were able to optimise their ICT usage. Again the UK was second only to the US, with 62 per cent of companies able to at least ‘mostly optimise’ their use of ICT, with Japan, France and Italy lagging behind (chart 4.5.2).