Honing and developing IT skills can be essential to increasing the value of IT graduates to employers, as well as improving job security once they have entered the field.
Mitchell Ashley of IT Business said although a career in IT can cover many "valuable jobs", certain skills are in high demand or are "rapidly increasing in value".
Obtaining or upgrading these skills could help graduates to not only secure a job, but also increase their prospects of landing a better one, he added.
Among the most in-demand skills identified by Mr Ashley are web application design and development, virtualization leverage, writing secure code and software-as-a-service development.
He also recommended obtaining recognized certificates in different IT applications, as they "demonstrate you've accomplished something that shows you have some level of skill".
"They're not necessarily going to let you fly the plane, but you might have a better shot at getting a seat onboard with an IT organization," he said.
Furthermore, he added, the more qualifications an individual has, the more likely a company is to retain them in the event of a downturn.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, one of the IT careers expected to experience rapid growth is software engineering.
Between 2006 and 2016, the profession is expected to generate some 324,000 new jobs.
