According to figures from the US federal Bureau of Labour a third of people come to IT with degrees in business, social sciences or other non-technical fields. More than 40 per cent of computer support specialists and a third of computer systems administrators don't have a college degree at all.

The report said that there are five times as many men in IT as there are women. Demand for both administrators and support staff is expected to grow over the next decade. Jobs for systems administrators, for instance, are expected to grow 28 per cent between now and 2020.