Scottish IT firms hit by Dell effect

Scottish IT firms are struggling to hold onto staff tempted by the recent arrival of Dell.

Dell is on track to hire 850 staff for its Glasgow call centre and was given a grant of £7.5m from the Scottish executive to do so. But Scottish firms say this makes it harder for them to keep staff they've spent good money on training.

Scotsys managing director John McAleenan told The Sunday Times: "We spend quite a bit of money and time training people, but cannot compete with a global company which has resources like Dell, so when they come calling it is hard to fend them off."

McAleenan said the money from the Scottish Executive was meant to create jobs rather than just removing people from locally-owned businesses.

Dell received a Regional Selective Assistance grant of £7.48m to help it open its Glasgow centre in the year 2004/2005 - 66 per cent of awards that year went to Scottish owned firms.

Dell told the paper its recruitment was "transparent and fair".

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