"Candidates are advised that industry certifications coupled with experience are the keys to successful employment."

The demand for ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) skills continues to grow, which Noblet said is driven by businesses wanting to increasingly justify their IT spend.

"Companies obviously realize that they still need to gain competitive advantage with technology. In the dotcom days though, the focus was all on the customer. Now, there is growing focus on the back end and on how to increase efficiency - which is what ITIL is all about," he said.

"ITIL is now such a commonly sought skill from our clients to the point that helpdesk roles are not called helpdesk roles any more - they are service desk roles and an understanding of ITIL is generally required for these [positions]."

In addition to ITIL, other skills in demand include ERP due to a global upgrade in these systems, .Net and J2EE skills and an increasing demand for Linux and Citrix.