In the current economic climate, the thing most desired by the majority of IT support executives is project management, according to a recent study.

Business solutions specialist Parity said that the demand for training in the area of project manager was strong and increased in popularity by five per cent on figures from 2007.

This counterbalances the weaker demand for such things as technical skills, which dropped by 53 per cent in 12 months, and end user skills, which fell by 39 per cent.

Chief executive officer of Parity Alwyn Welch said that instead of causing businesses to struggle in the face of recession, IT actually delivers companies with a way out of it.

He continued: "It's at the heart of the way businesses will pull through the recession, and needs a skilled, UK-based workforce of IT specialists and project managers to make it a success."

Last month, Parity revealed that 98 per cent of IT support professionals want their company to implement a green IT scheme.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.