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Bridging the digital skills gap

Inspired Thinking Group may be a global digital, creative and tech business, but we were founded (and are headquartered) in the UK – so when technology leaders from prominent companies and organisations were invited to a summit addressing the digital skills crisis, I was only too keen to be involved.

So, what exactly is the crisis? In a nutshell, digital skills are becoming more important across all sectors. However, 72 per cent of UK businesses currently have vacancies for roles with digital skills and 68 per cent say they are struggling to hire the people they need.

According to a recent global digital skills survey by Gallup and Amazon, only 11 per cent of UK workers possess ‘advanced digital skills’, such as cloud architecture/maintenance, software or app development and AI/ML.

Why is the UK struggling?

As McKinsey points out, the first Covid lockdown meant we vaulted several years forward in consumer and business digital adoption, without the supply of skills necessary to deliver these emerging technologies.

This is a global issue. However, UK employers invest only around half the EU average per employee in continuing vocational education, while participation in ICT subjects in school decreased by 40 per cent between 2015 and 2021, with a similar drop in enrolments for further education.

This underinvestment is costing the country massively. Gallup’s survey suggests the right investment could raise the UK’s annual GDP by around £67.8bn.

The benefits for employees are obvious too. Those with advanced digital skills earn 30 per cent more than those without any, while job vacancies requiring 10 or more digital skills pay nearly 50 per cent more than positions requiring none.

A joined-up approach

What we need is to vastly increase the supply of candidates with advanced digital skills and to ensure their skills remain relevant. This won’t happen unless we develop a holistic approach that fully joins up government, education/training and employer activity.

As both a business technologist and technology lecturer, I’m acutely aware of the disconnect between academic education and workplace training.

For example, with digital technology and business requirements changing so rapidly, formal education courses can (and do) become dated very quickly. Businesses at the technology coal face may be better placed to evolve curricula than full-time trainers who lack up-to-date, first-hand experience – but it requires much greater coordination than we are seeing currently.

At ITG, we have a lot of experience at doing this. Training initiatives, such as our Circuit, give new team members the opportunity to work alongside industry experts to develop their digital skills. Our initiatives provide huge benefits both to participants and to the company.

However, two-thirds of UK workers are employed by SMEs and start-ups who, without external support, struggle to afford the expensive digital skills training their employees (and their businesses) need.

ITG routinely nurtures start-ups, and we are always looking at ways to increase our training support further. Nevertheless, government is the key player here. I would like to see government hugely increase its focus on workplace training to support existing employees and ease the burden on smaller companies so they can afford to upskill staff.

Government also has a key role to play in bringing trainers and companies together and providing the incentives to support coordinated action.

Companies must bite the bullet and increase investment too. If UK companies continue to fall behind their EU counterparts in training investment, this will inevitably reduce competitiveness.

Leaving no-one behind

Training strategies also need to ensure everyone is included. With 62 per cent of young males saying they’re interested in acquiring advanced digital skills, but only 42 per cent of young females saying the same, there is a danger of perpetuating historical pay and promotion disparities if we don’t address this.

We also need to recognise that digital learning is a lifelong endeavour, and that while full-time education policy is important, it won’t help Boomers or Gen X-ers. We risk losing their vast business experience simply because they lack essential digital skills.

Even Millennials, who are more likely to have grown up as digital natives, typically only have basic or intermediate skills unless they’ve received specific training.

Getting the ball rolling

It’s a complex problem, and there will be a lot more to report. In the meantime, I have one recommendation for every employer who feels they’re falling behind in digital skills: carry out a digital skills audit across your entire workforce. You will undoubtedly have employees who have digital competences you are not aware of – probably because they are currently in a role that isn’t considered ‘advanced digital’.

This is just the first step in transforming your business culture to ensure digital skills play a central role in your future prosperity.

John Kirk is Chief Strategy Officer at Inspired Thinking Group (Team ITG/Storyteq). He is a senior visiting fellow at Alliance Manchester Business School and lecturer in Strategic and Advanced Strategic Management, guiding postgraduates and executives through their MBAs. He supervises students and groups through live company projects in technology and consulting. If you have any questions about John’s article, email hello@teamitg.com.