Not enough well-trained IT professionals in the UK could stop the knowledge economy in the country reaching its full potential, a new report warns.

The report, commissioned by Microsoft, claims that 50 per cent of the UK workforce will operate in this knowledge economy by 2010, but warned that IT skill shortages could have a serious impact on this prediction.

Despite this, the data also shows that companies in the UK are increasingly investing in things like software development and IT R&D to allow the knowledge economy to grow.

However, this investment has done little to address the skills shortage facing the IT industry. In fact, the report found that there had been a 43 per cent drop between 2001 and 2006 in the number of people taking A-levels in computing.

"The UK is well positioned, but there are changes to the global economic environment that demand adaptation," explained Mike Rodd, the director of the British Computer Society.

"Globalisation in IT is not the death-knell that received wisdom portrays. In fact, globalisation could be the fuel in our economic engine. However that does not mean success is assured, or that the road will be easy."

"As job roles change, continued education and skills development must be in place, particularly while the IT education pipeline is re-established."

A separate report recently identified that more needed to be done to encourage women to take on IT roles and training.