In an age of rapid digital transformation, the need for skilled workers has never been greater. As countless UK organisations grapple with a growing shortage of qualified employees, a disastrous skills deficit looms on the horizon. Not only threatening the survival of private businesses, the skills gap underscores a pressing social responsibility to invest in the future of our workforce at a time when it is most needed.

At Code Division, we’re committed to tackling this impending crisis sustainably, while building solutions that benefit both communities and industry.

The Growing Dilemma:

Across sectors, industry is experiencing the repercussions of a lack of skilled talent. Despite the warning signs, many organisations have failed to recognise the importance of investing in learning and development pipelines.

In 2022 the Federation of Small Businesses found that 80% of small firms faced difficulties recruiting applicants with suitable skills in the previous 12 months, while the Open University 2020 Business Barometer found that skills gaps are costing companies a record £6.6bn a year due to inflated salaries, temporary staffing, recruitment fees and training.

This scarcity is predicted to worsen in the coming years, with the skills gap expected to reach alarming proportions. The consequences will be dire, with businesses struggling to maintain their competitive edge while meeting the demands of an evolving marketplace.

We are calling for purposeful collaboration between industry and third sector organisations to bring about an end to shortsighted solutions.

The Role of Nonprofit Organisations:

In the face of this impending disaster, nonprofit organisations specialising in retraining refugees and underprivileged individuals for tech and digital roles emerge as beacons of hope. We find great inspiration in the work of fellow organisations such as Code Your Future, CONCAT, Na’amal and MIT ReACT, who recognise the untapped potential within marginalised communities and are committed to providing them with the necessary skills and support to thrive in the today’s job market. By focusing on the needs and lived experiences of these individuals, we can create effective learning pathways that are holistic, flexible and empowering.

While our nonprofit sector busts with passion and drive, we face an ever-deepening funding crisis that threatens our most vital services. Across the nonprofit sector, organisations are calling for collaborative solutions with the private businesses most affected by the skills shortage.

The Opportunity:

Collaborative skills programs provide the opportunity for private businesses to do good in their communities while simultaneously securing a skilled workforce for their own future.

By partnering with nonprofit organisations dedicated to retraining programs for marginalised and underserved communities, companies can actively contribute to bridging the nationwide skills deficit gap. Not only that, but private businesses are able to fund courses that equip individuals with the specific digital and tech skills required within their own ranks.

The Ripple Effect:

The far-reaching effects of upskilling programs cannot be understated. By empowering refugees and underprivileged individuals with marketable skills, we promote social inclusion, reduce unemployment rates, and empower entire communities to drive change from the ground up.

Through our own work, we’ve witnessed the transformative power of our programs to not only provide accessible education, but to build confidence, community, and wellbeing.

Conclusion:

The solution to the impending skills deficit disaster lies within our grasp.

By acknowledging the importance of investing in people and collaborating with the community, private businesses can pave the way for a brighter future. Together, we can bridge the skills gap, empower communities to thrive, and secure a future that benefits all.

In this blog, Code Division digital marketing tutor Tess, gives 3 pointers to consider when writing your strategy.

1. Your client persona

Thinking your social media audience is ‘everyone’, is not a road you want to go down. Here’s a quote that sums it up pretty well; it’s from the godfather of advertising and inspiration behind Mad Men, David Ogilvy:

“If you find yourself one fine day saying the same things to a bishop and a trapeze artist, you are done for.”

What made Ogilivy sell so well, was that he always considered the individual reading. Social media marketing is no different. You don’t want to be aiming your content at every Tom, Dick and Harry. Instead, you’ll want to talk directly to your client persona — and we’ll come back to how you can create a one in a moment.

So why do we need to create a persona? Getting into the nitty gritty of who your customer is, helps you imagine them as a person; and this makes writing social media content much more personal and targeted. Which of course builds trust, and when someone trusts your brand, they’re more likely to buy.

Just for good measure, here’s another noteworthy Ogilvy quote, I really like:

“Do not … address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When people read your copy, they are alone” — David Ogilvy

So, how does one make a client persona? Your ‘ICP’ is your ‘ideal client persona’ or ‘customer persona’, which ever suits. It’s an imaginary person based on who you think your customer is, and yes, you should give them a name. This is helpful for creating content, you can ask yourself: ‘what would I say to Dave, writing this Facebook post?’ or ‘does this Instagram reel resonate with Susan?’.

Demographics are useful, but more important are the psychographics: this is how your customer thinks, feels and what their needs and wants are. The better you can understand these, the more you can tailor your social media content to your customer. And in turn, the more content will appeal to them!

Here are a few pointers when making your ICP:

• Demographics such as age, gender identity, income and location can all be helpful
• Interests
• Pain points
• Hopes and dreams

You might be scratching your head on how you can pluck these details, well the place to start is usually… your current customers! It’s worthwhile doing some surveys and research into your current customers to help inform your ideal client persona. We go into this in more details in the Supercharge your Socials 1 day course.

2. Brand Personality

The idea that brand’s have ‘personality’ was brilliantly modelled by Jennifer Aakers, who created the Aaker brand personality model in 1998. This chart is a super inspiring way to start looking at what your brand personality might look like.

Image from https://endeavorcreative.com/

Before embarking on any social media strategy or campaign, you’ll want to be in keeping with your brand personality. We dive into brand personality in a lot more detail in my Supercharge your Social Strategy course.

3. Social media tone of voice

This is something easily missed out of strategy meetings, yet it’s so integral when approaching social media content.

Tone of voice is the way you speak to your customers and should be consistent with your brand values and mission. Brands like Innocent Smoothies and Duo Lingo are great examples of how tone of voice can be unique to a brand, they use irreverence and humour to stand out from the crowd.

I suggest thinking about a few things when creating your social media tone of voice:

~ Your tone will set you apart from the rest and make your channel distinctively you. You might find that you have a different tone for each platform; for instance your TikTok tone of voice could differ from how you speak on LinkedIn.

~ Is your tone sweet-tempered and personal? Or more scientific and serious? Is it uplifting and fun? You’ll want to go back to your client persona which we discussed earlier and think about what tone will ring with them most.

~ It’s also important to consider the language you use. Are you using accessible language, or do you need more scientific and technical language to appeal to your audience? Are the words you’re using more casual or formal? Will you use slang or colloquialisms? Tone of voice is really as in-depth as deciding between ‘bbz’ and ‘babe’, or ‘what’s up!’ and ‘how are you today?’

~This is when some A/B testing can be useful if you want to experiment with a few tones of voice before deciding on the best one for your company.

~It’s great to have this written down in your social media tone of voice guidelines, so that anyone who joins can hit the ground running and has some clear guidelines when creating content for your channels.

Hopefully that’s a good starting point. This is a WHOLE other topic and we do a module on social media tone of voice, marketing analytics and A/B testing on the 1 day supercharge socials course.

Finishing words

Having your brand personality, social media tone of voice and client persona nailed before creating content and executing your strategy is going to help you create content that emphasises with your audience and builds confidence in what the offering is.

By building a strategy, you avoid ‘selling’ on social media, and build a brand presence that reflects your mission, values and vision. People want more from businesses, so it’s integral to any strategy to connect with the heart of your customer.

If you’ve found this blog helpful, you might want to check out my upcoming social media courses with Code Division.

The digital skills shortage

That’s where people come in, people with a specific set of skills… data analytics skills! Not enough employees have strong data skills. In fact the UK is facing a huge skills gap in data analytics and the digital skills shortage means that finding talent is becoming harder than ever. And it’s not just the UK struggling to up skill their. workforce either, it’s estimated that around 85 million jobs will not reach their potential by 2030 worldwide due to skills shortages.

But here at Code Division we believe you don’t need to hire a data scientist to make the most of the data in your company. Why not train your own employees and improve their data skills? We believe that nurturing the talent in your own company can be an effective way start becoming a data-driven company and modernise your business

Finding the right data analytics course for you

So, with that in mind let us look at the options out there. In this Code Division blog, we’re going to explore what data analytics courses are right for your team.

The cost-effective choice for gaining introductory skills — online courses such as Udemy and FutureLearn

What’s good:

For £12.99, you can enrol your employees on a data analyst online course, with online course provider Udemy. The course will give employees a good, rounded understanding of Data analytics, we also like how you get work with a real-life data project.

What’s not so good:

However, courses like these can really lacks any personal contact with the tutor, it’s important when tackling a topic as expansive and technical as data analytics that you have someone on hand to ask questions to. It’s also important when choosing courses on Udemy you make sure the course is not outdated and you do your due diligence on the course tutor, as there is no quality control on Udemy: anyone can create a course on there. You might find there is a lot of cowboy courses with other cheap course providers, where anyone can upload their course.

The Code Division lowdown:

These online course videos are a good introduction to data analytics, and great for companies that are in no rush for their employees to learn data analytics. We’ll also say this is probably one of the most cost-effective options on the internet, so is well suited to someone self-employed or micro-businesses looking to scale up.

The Free option — learning on Youtube

We all know a story about someone who trained themselves to something amazing, using nothing but YouTube tutorials online, but how good is YouTube for learning a digital skill?

What’s good:

There’s a wide choice of YouTubers in the data analytics space, who really know their stuff. The thing is, there is also a bunch of equally confident YouTubers, who don’t! The tricky part is finding a credible channel that’s really going to train your team with the right skills.

What’s not so good:

Again, the issue here is that other than the comments section or Live videos, there’s not really an opportunity to talk face to face with the tutor — something we feel is especially important when learning data skills. Another issue one might face is lacking the motivation to continue with the course without someone holding you accountable. It’s easy to start a course with the best intentions and get left behind. Doing a course with a live tutor will help guide you through the course, from start to finish and can address any difficulties learning certain topics.

The Code Division lowdown:

YouTube can be great for a quick fix or for troubleshooting when using software’s such as Microsoft Power BI.

Learn with experts — Code Division data analytics courses

Last, but not least, is the Code Division range of online data analytics courses. Our 1-day courses are delivered by expert tutors and so you can be assured that your tutor will teach you at your unique pace. It’s also great as you’re getting up-to-date training, rather than an out-of-date course recorded years ago. You’ll use real life data on each of our courses, and our tutors will help hone your unique learning needs and personalise the course to your individual skillset.

The courses take on an Agile learning approach and use the SCRUM method, to make learning a complex topic, achievable in bite-sized chunks.

We only enrol a maximum of 10–15 learners on our courses, we find this helps the students learn more and makes it more personalised to the individual’s skillset. It’s also worth knowing that all Code Division courses can be reworked for your company, so if there’s a specific challenge or area you’d like us to focus more on, we can design and deliver a bespoke data analytics course for your team. We also offer in person courses too if an online course doesn’t suit your business needs.

We have two data analytics courses available:

Power BI with Paul

Power BI is a Business Intelligence tool from Microsoft. From creating engaging dashboards to generate actionable insights, our 2-day Power BI and data analytics training will level up your teams’ decision-making skills.

This course does not require any previous Power BI experience or training in Data Analysis. It’s perfect for organisations who are deploying or already using Power BI and want to up skill their teams in Data Analytics and how to build and manage BI solutions.

After this Power BI course, you’ll be confident with:

• The Microsoft Power BI (Business Intelligence) Desktop Interface
• Connecting to different data sources and transforming data
• Data modelling best practices
• Storytelling using a wide range of visualisations
• Building real-world KPIs into compelling interactive reports
• Publishing reports online and sharing across the organisation

Cost: £999 Check out the upcoming Power BI courses here

Data Ideas Hackathon course

Following the Scrum framework, this day-long hackathon will focus on:

• Problem-solving
• Design Thinking
• Data Analysis Techniques
• Data Storytelling
• Agile Project Management

Cost: £650 Check out our upcoming courses here

But as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining.

What is Remote Work, and what does it mean for city-living?

Changes to the ways we work have always led to changes in the ways that we live.

The late 18th century brought the beginnings of the First Industrial Revolution to Britain. With huge shifts in the way we worked came huge changes in our lives: we saw mass migration from rural to urban areas; mass production allowing for increased output with less human labour; technological advancements in transport, communication and science bringing modern conveniences into our homes.

Nowadays, according to the UN, over half of the world currently lives in urbanised areas, with numbers set to rise over the coming decades. Cities have always been synonymous with progress and industry, places where life runs at a faster pace and opportunities are abundant. And yet, COVID-19 has taken its toll on our perceptions surrounding where we live and the way that we live, changing the way we interact with our local environments and as a result, altering our relationship with them.

Working from home became the new reality for many of us, with travel restrictions forcing us to spend more time than ever within the borders of our properties and local neighbourhoods — that is, of course, unless you were a Conservative MP at the time.

With this new reality comes a reassessment of our home life, with half of renters surveyed by Rightmove stating that lockdown had an impact on the features of properties they were looking for. Those surveyed identified outdoor spaces or access to nearby parks, increased square footage and even the ability to get a pet as important features in rental properties.

City-dwellers who spent the first half of lockdown cramped in flats with no outdoor access left their urban homes in droves, sending property and rental prices in rural areas into the stratosphere. Between April and May of 2020, property searches in the Scottish Borders and East Lothian rose by 43% and 19% respectively — and with a number of companies letting go of their physical offices and shifting towards remote work settings, we’re left to wonder whether city life will ever hold the appeal it once did.

So what does this mean for Scotland’s tech landscape?

Remote working offers an abundance of opportunities to Scottish organisations and workers alike. The ability to work from anywhere offers individuals greater autonomy, greater freedom when it comes to their lifestyles, the ability to spend more time with family or tend to caring responsibilities — even to travel and work as a ‘digital nomad’. For organisations, remote work offers a number of benefits, from the ability to hire from a larger talent pool and diversify your team to the chance to save on the rent of an office space or offer part time or flexible working hours. There is evidence to suggest that remote or flexible work can benefit our health, lowering stress in employees and allowing them to be more productive, spending less time commuting and more time on what’s important to them outside of work hours.

At Code Division, the pandemic forced us to move quickly in establishing our own Virtual Learning Environment, recording bite-sized lessons that would fit around learner schedules and finding the best platforms for collaboration and community building. Remote working and learning allowed us to reach people who aren’t from tech backgrounds and those for whom digitisation and automation seriously threaten job prospects, it opened up exciting opportunities for collaboration with others which in turn helped us better understand our goals and values as an organisation.

Most importantly, the shift to remote work opened up doors to those with disabilities or chronic illnesses who face barriers to onsite work, such as poor accessibility and transportation difficulties. In 2018, the employment rate for disabled people in Scotland aged 16–64 was 45.6%, compared with an employment rate of 81.1% for non-disabled people. There have been positive signs that the shift to remote work may have had a positive impact, with the ONS finding that the disability employment rate rose by 0.3% from last year — translating to around 300,000 more people in work. While there is still a long way to go, we’re hoping to see this upward trend continue.

Despite the many benefits, some workers and companies are divided on the issue of remote working. A number of large tech companies have opted to continue with a hybrid approach, where workers spend some time at home and some time in the office, meaning that most employees will still be restricted to living in or around a city. Amongst these companies reasons for remaining in the office include a greater sense of trust and improved relationships amongst employees, not to mention the ever-important ‘office culture’. For some employees, in-person work can provide smoother collaboration, improved mental health and a sense of belonging.

For Scottish Tech however, remote work has offered exciting workforce opportunities. More than a third of Scottish employers are now hiring for remote positions. With the increasing popularity of online courses and training programmes as well as the uptake of technology in traditionally rural industries, there has never been a better time to start a career in tech.

How Data will drive the New Economy

Emerging technologies of this era, sometimes referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, such as Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, have led to huge interest in all areas of industry. In our excitement to apply new tech to our work, we must consider the looming digital skills gap.

With more than 75 million jobs expected to be displaced in the coming years due to automation and technological integration, it is imperative that everyone is included in the shift towards digitalisation. As Scotland strives to be an outstanding contributor in the global tech ecosystem, we’ll see greater demand for roles which require tech knowledge — meaning greater demand for workers who are highly trained in digital skills.

Not only that, but with advances in Agri-Tech driven by the threat of food insecurity and the nation’s drive towards Net Zero emissions in 2045, we’ll be seeing much greater demand for digital, data analysts and scientists; those who can manage, analyse and visualise large complex datasets in order to make sense of all the noise. Data will not only drive our society’s shift towards our Net Zero goals, but will also be an integral cog in the works of any modern organisation wishing to succeed, providing valuable business insights as well as streamlining work methods.

With that in mind, what assumptions can we make about the future of work?

What’s next for the future of work?

After almost two years of pandemic madness, it seems our relationship with the traditional office setting has been altered immutably. As a direct result of COVID-19, many of us have spent more time in our homes and communities than ever before, with remote working adverts in May 2021 three times above their February 2020 average.

In a survey of 6,000 workers, recruitment company Randstad UK found that the pandemic had changed the way people think about work, life, and the balance between the two. 69% of those surveyed felt confident about moving jobs in the next few months, with only 16% reporting feelings of worry around securing a new role. This shift in attitude has been named ‘the Great Resignation’ — an era of global realisation that, simply, life is too short to be spent in a constant state of burnout.

Remote working has brought its own set of challenges too. Connectivity has been a major barrier for lower income communities, with a lack of access to basic digital services such as wifi having disastrous consequences for some families.

To help address this, the National Lottery fund awarded £12M worth of grants in 2020 to 311 Scottish groups, with the majority of this funding going directly towards community hubs. Community hubs aim to transform unused buildings in towns and cities into centres that can welcome a wide range of community groups and local organisations, promoting the social and economic development of too-often-ignored areas. These hubs will be vital in supporting the creation and success of Scottish tech startups and scale-ups as well as providing a community space equipped with free, high-quality connectivity.

Yet, we still have a long way to go when it comes to addressing the digital divide in the UK. According to OFCOM’s Technology Tracker 2021 report, 5% of households still lack access to the internet at home. In order to address digital inequality we must ensure that everyone is included and able to participate in the digital economy, that no one faces barriers to learning the skills they need to succeed, and that communities across the UK are supported to harness new technologies and equipped to thrive in the digital age.

— — —

Code Division is a non-profit organisation and learning centre dedicated to reducing digital inequality and creating a more equitable and diverse tech landscape. We provide digital education to industry and schools, using the proceeds to run free community courses which are inclusive and open to all.

We are currently offering remote digital skills courses which are fully-funded for eligible residents of Scotland. Check out our website to find a course that suits you — there’s never been a better time to start your data journey!

https://codedivision.co.uk/