To address the IT skills shortage, CIOs are hiring more people and launching IT apprenticeship programs.

According to the of the CIO 100, nearly two thirds of CIOs are boosting IT headcount at their organizations to bring critical capabilities in-house and a comparable number are reporting difficulty obtaining the talent they need to drive transformation at their organizations. Approximately 62% of CIOs recognized in the annual celebration of the UK’s top CIOs, CTOs, IT directors, and digital executives told CIO UK that they were having trouble finding the talent they needed to drive transformation. Meanwhile, 65% of CIOs said they were increasing headcount to bring in crucial skills and the capacity to react internally. Although this is nine percentage points less than the previous year, a resounding 79% of respondents indicated that recruiting and retention have moved up the CIO’s management priority.