We’re currently in the middle of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also called Industry 4.0 or 4IR. AI and machine learning are becoming integrated into many facets of life. Nearly everyone owns some sort of Internet of Things (IoT) device, from smartwatches to automatic thermostats. With everything becoming so connected, it would make sense that many more people are working with digital technologies.
Unfortunately, the opposite is true. In the UK, there are too few people qualified to handle the roles that would help tech companies innovate and grow at the rate they want to. A 2021 report from the UK government highlighted a huge deficit in people gaining the requisite STEM qualifications to fill those roles.
Why aren’t more people learning the skills needed to start a digital career, and what can we do about it?
What is the Digital Skills Gap?
A skills gap is where there are jobs that need to be done and not enough people who know how to do them. The digital skills gap in the UK shows that there aren’t enough people trained in:
- AI and machine learning
- Data analysis
- Data management and other data sciences
- Digital communications
- Statistics
- Programming/coding
Companies want to take advantage of these skills by recruiting tech experts. Businesses can then focus on growth and keep up with their competitors. But if there isn’t anyone to recruit, these businesses may stagnate and their digital transformation efforts may fail.
Finding of the UK Government
The report “Quantifying the UK Data Skills Gap” acknowledges that data is the driving force behind major economies. It states that data literacy improves both career prospects and quality of life, because individuals can interact with the digital assets around them better. The report particularly focused on the skills impacting the UK job market.
The findings of the report were fairly bleak. Key statistics showed:
- Around 46% of businesses struggle to recruit individuals for data-based roles.
- Yet 48% of all UK businesses are currently attempting to recruit technical talent.
- Up to 234,000 roles remain unfilled due to a lack of skilled personnel.
- At least 14% of firms don’t believe the data skills within their teams are sufficient to meet their business goals.
The industries most in need of people with digital skills include finance, computing, education, manufacturing, and retail.
Finance has obvious digital connections when you consider banking apps, secure logins, and the need for advanced cybersecurity.
You might not think of retail as overly digital, but consider shopping online. Retailers need experts who can create platforms to hold data for thousands of customers, often called customer relationship management (CRM) systems. There’s also the requirement for the analysis of vast volumes of data for sales, marketing, and inventory management.
A more recent survey completed by Forbes in 2023 showed that 93% of UK businesses believe they’re being impacted by the digital skills gap. Some stated that technology is advancing too fast for people to keep up. In other words, people can’t retrain fast enough to fill the roles that become available.
The same research highlighted transferable skills like problem-solving as also being in short supply. If someone with great “outside the box” thinking and leadership skills retrained in tech, they could potentially demand high salaries from tech companies seeking top talent.
Getting Kids Ready for a Digital Tomorrow
A lack of digital skills could become an obstacle for ambitious young people. One of the primary challenges facing students is that the approach to mainstream education in the UK has remained largely unchanged for many years. While schools now offer computing and ICT (information and communications technology) qualifications, very few are starting with an early look at:
- Coding
- Engineering
- Physical computing
- Robotics
- Data science, management, and analysis
- AI and machine learning
Design and technology (D&T) can cover some aspects of this, depending on the direction students take with projects and the support offered within schools. However, as we’ve already explored on our blog, the number of students actively studying D&T is dropping every year. Girls, in particular, miss out on early digital education due to pervasive stereotyping which means boys gain more encouragement to pursue STEM subjects.
Thankfully, there are solutions. Grassroots organisations like Girls Into Coding provide ways for girls to get hands-on with a range of practical activities and workshops. They get to interact with inspiring women in tech, learning what it’s like working in a digital career. These youngsters mentor each other, learning new digital skills and gaining highly transferable skills that will help them in just about any industry they choose to go into.
The future relies on digital skills and talents. We need innovative solutions to address national and international challenges like the energy crisis, climate change, and the shift to a more circular economy. Getting your kids involved in tech now could help build the bridge needed to get across that skills gap.
Girls Into Coding hosts FREE tech education and engineering events for girls 10-14, helping transform the girls in tech of today into the women in tech of tomorrow.
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