Tertiary qualifications have the most influence when it comes to hiring IT candidates with 77 percent of respondents rating a university bachelor degree as having a high to very high influence on their hiring decisions.

A bachelor of IT or a combined IT and business degree are the two most preferred IT degrees nominated by 75 percent of respondents, a Bachelor of Computer Science being the third most popular choice.

Females continue to represent only a small portion of new hires attracted to the IT profession. More than 56 percent of respondents work in organizations where less than 30 percent of their total IT hires in the last 12 months were female, while 21 percent claim this percentage is less than 10 percent of their hires.

"Females, half of our population, are grossly under represented in the industry," Howard said.

"Combine this with the finding that nearly half of respondents cite competition from other professions as a factor that will contribute to hiring difficulty and it's obvious that IT has an ongoing image problem that needs addressing."