For Chief Information Officers in the UK, the tech talent crisis is a critical bottleneck to growth. While 51% of IT firms planned to hire in early 2025, a staggering 75% admit they can’t find the qualified candidates they need, according to Experis UK. This isn’t just an inconvenience; a Gartner survey confirms that talent issues are a top-three obstacle preventing 44% of IT leaders from achieving their strategic goals. 

Solving this complex challenge requires a more sophisticated approach than simply posting job ads or hiring temporary contractors. A truly resilient IT workforce strategy involves pulling multiple levers. 

A Holistic Approach to Closing the Talent Gap 

According to insights from McKinsey, companies have four primary levers to address the talent gap: buying, building, outsourcing, and partnering. However, the first three come with significant limitations in today’s market. 

• Buying Talent: In a fiercely competitive market, attempting to hire for every required skill is both unsustainable and prohibitively expensive. The best talent is scarce, and companies are unlikely to secure their full range of needs through direct hiring alone. 

• Traditional Outsourcing: While useful for augmenting headcount on a limited basis, traditional outsourcing is not a strategic solution. It often leads to high turnover as upskilled talent moves on, and it rarely grants access to the most highly skilled, specialized experts. 

• Building Talent: Reskilling and upskilling the existing workforce is a crucial, non-negotiable part of any talent strategy. But it is not a complete solution. It takes time and cannot possibly fill every immediate or specialized skill gap required to stay competitive. 

This leaves the fourth level as the most powerful and strategic option for long-term success: Partnering. 

From Outsourcing to Strategic Partnership: A Critical Shift 

Unlike traditional outsourcing, a true strategic partnership offers far greater access to key skills and stability. It moves beyond a transactional relationship to a collaborative one, where the partner firm becomes an extension of your own team. 

As McKinsey notes, this model helps alleviate the core issues of high turnover and inconsistent quality. A true partner invests in training and provides clear career paths for its talent, ensuring you have access to a stable, motivated, and highly skilled team. The focus shifts from filling temporary seats to building long-term capabilities. The key is to craft an agreement that reflects a genuine partnership, aligning both parties toward shared strategic goals. 

Why Vietnam is the Premier Destination for Strategic IT Partnerships 

When seeking a global partner, the destination matters. You need a mature, stable ecosystem with a sustainable talent pipeline. This is where Vietnam excels. 

• Future-Ready Talent: Vietnam’s ecosystem isn’t just delivering large quantities of IT graduates—it actively invests in them. The country’s STEM strategy projects up to 100,000 ICT graduates annually by 2035, including advanced-degree holders in AI and data science. Universities such as HUST, Vietnam National University, and CMC University consistently deliver highly skilled engineers ready for global projects. 

• Proven BFSI Capability: NAB Innovation Centre Vietnam is a clear example. Leveraging the country’s young IT workforce, NAB hires ~100 graduates each year, while upskilling thousands of staff in cloud, security, and SRE. The bank’s commitment reflects confidence in Vietnam’s talent depth and its ability to support complex financial services transformation. 

Read more: Why NAB Chose Vietnam for Its Tech Hub: A Strategic IT Roadmap 

• Innovation as a Service: Beyond talent, Vietnam is becoming an innovation lab, with Intel, Microsoft, and Samsung running R&D centers where CIOs can accelerate pilots in AI, blockchain, and digital banking. 

• Resilient best-shore hub: Coupled with political stability, UK–Vietnam trade ties, and time-zone alignment, Vietnam offers UK enterprises both resilience and agility—the best of both worlds in a best-shore model. 

 Take the Next Step Towards a Resilient IT Strategy With CMC Global 

To succeed with a partnership model, you need a firm that operates with the same strategic, customer-centric mindset you do. 

At CMC Global, we are purpose-built to be your strategic partner in innovation. We offer: 

• A Deep Bench of Talent: Beyond 3,500+ certified engineers, our pipeline is strengthened by CMC University, producing industry-ready talent in AI, cloud, and cybersecurity. 

• Innovation Investment: We back this with long-term innovation investments—from CMC OpenAI to a $250M Hyperscale Green Data Center in Ho Chi Minh City—creating platforms where BFSI and fintech firms can co-innovate and scale. 

• Best-shore Alignment: Through our best-shore model, we blend offshore efficiency with nearshore agility, helping UK enterprises de-risk operations and accelerate transformation. 

Contact us today to discover how a partnership with CMC Global in Vietnam can power your transformation.