Bring your own PC-tablet-phone to work

...businesses can't just put their heads in the sand and hope kids will start toeing the line. When the CEO of Facebook slops around in flip-flops and a T-shirt, the expectations of a new generation are there for all to see - along with Mark Zuckerberg's toes.

The people who are developing their own businesses

"These are the people who are developing their own businesses, who are going to be at Silicon Roundabout and a whole generation of research skills are being used in a different way," said Intellect's Henderson. "Is there a part of the current generation who look at [conventional businesses] and think, 'Then, in fact, that's not for me however I do have these skills [and will take them elsewhere]'."

Dr Keiichi Nakata, reader in social informatics at Henley Business School at the University of Reading, who was as well at the roundtable, said the university has heard feedback from students who have met companies for interviews and been "very surprised" that technologies they use every day are not being utilised inside those businesses.

Getronics' Parks added: "I think the job profile's changing as then, with the advent of online services and cloud computing. If you look at that, at that time the role of the administrator is disappearing. Those types of roles have been radically changed in organisations. We're looking for architects now, we're not looking for administrators. There's nothing to administer anymore. So I think there's a as a matter of fact big gap [in the UK IT job market] there.