A CHRONIC shortage of skilled workers is holding back Oxford’s tech industry, according to one of its fastest-growing players.

Digital marketing agency Zest recently tried to recruit an Egyptian national, after it failed to find a suitable candidate locally.

According to managing director Alex Minchin, top professionals are snubbing Oxford for rival cities including Bristol, Brighton, Bournemouth, Manchester and London.

He said: “I couldn’t find someone with the right skills around here.”

The problem centres on the lack of experienced workers with higher-level skills.

Mr Minchin added: “If we want Oxford to continue to develop, we need good digital people but there is a skills shortage because most people are choosing other cities instead.

“Places like Brighton, Bournemouth and Manchester are accelerating quicker.”

Last year, the Oxford Science Park-based firm handed staff pay rises of up to 30 per cent, to encourage them to stay.

Mr Minchin added: “I lost one of my guys a few months ago after he was offered £36,000 a year, which is silly money for that type of role – you’d normally be looking at £30,000.”

The firm, whose clients include the National Trust and Ocado, has doubled staff numbers from seven to 14 in the past year and expects to employ 30 by 2020.

Oxford was ranked ninth out of 21 digital clusters around the country in a report published in February [2015] by Government-backed Tech City UK. London, Bristol, Manchester, Reading and Leeds were all rated higher, although Oxford pipped long-term rival Cambridge, which was 10th.

Oxfordshire’s digital sector employs 22,000 people and the number of digital ventures launched between 2010 and 2013 jumped by a quarter.

High-profile tech success stories include Natural Motion, based in St Ebbe’s Street, Oxford, which was started by former Oxford University student Torsten Reil and then sold for £300m to US games giant Zynga last year and Solid State Logic, which exports high-end digital mixing consoles.

But Tech Nation described the Oxford digital scene as “fragmented”.

Mr Minchin praised volunteer group Digital Oxford and digital agency White October for their “heroic efforts” to network and host events but said provision needed to be on a much bigger scale and paid for by the public purse.

He explained: “We bang on about how good Oxfordshire is but what are we doing to incubate that growth?

“There’s a lot of good stuff happening but we need more facilities, events and conferences to pull people in.”

His comments came in the run-up to Digital Day next Tuesday, aimed at encouraging 15 to 18-year-olds to consider a career in the digital field.

He and a colleague will visit Wallingford School to talk to 18 sixth formers.

Sue Cleaver, curriculum coordinator ICT and vocational qualifications at Wallingford School, said: “This will give our students hands-on feel for what’s happening in the digital world.

“There’s a huge demand for skills, because the industry is growing massively.”