In addition to attitudes of parents and career advisers, Argy said the curriculum and teaching methods in schools was also an issue.

"Anecdotal evidence shows that 80 percent of kids in IT subjects in high school know more than the teacher. That's hardly motivating. Imagine if 80 percent of the kids in maths or science thought the teacher was an idiot," he said.

"Historically, the bureaucrats just get the woodwork, metal work or science teacher to teach IT, rather than bring someone new in that has a technology background. These people are not trained to teach IT," he said.

Argy said that while IT as a subject needs to be taught by people with technology skills and experience, IT also needs to become a more integral part of the education system generally.

"Here, you can see a big divide between public and private schools. Many private schools will mandate that every kid has a laptop. Now I'm not suggesting public schools could do that, but there are a lot of research skills that could be taught via technology now, in every subject."