There is no simple answer to this, but we can certainly point to the speed at which technology has moved in the last few years as a major reason for the skills gap we’re seeing.
Many people – and organisations – don’t feel part of the digital progress going on around them. Schools are embracing digital, changing ways of teaching and learning, but education shouldn’t stop when we leave the classroom.
In fact, it needs to accelerate because we have to apply skills in practical situations to solve real business challenges.
Kathryn Parsons is founder of Decoded, an organisation that has been driving digital skills in the UK since 2011.
'We may have up to 30 different careers in our increasingly long life-times.' She says, 'So, there’s suddenly this huge skills gap and this huge need for an education revolution, and it is important that government and business and individuals all play a role in that.' The current workforce includes everyone from digital natives to those who started their careers before the now-ubiquitous Microsoft Office tools such as Word and Excel were invented. As a result, there is great diversity in the typical organisation’s workforce.
Given the make-up of the modern workplace, it is a mistake to prioritise digital-native, tech-oriented talent at the expense of the older, more experienced but less technically aware members of your employee base.
Anyone with the desire to learn can easily master digital skills with the right support.
To successfully bridge the skills shortfall, companies need to invest in continual upskilling, so that they can manage employees’ divergent experiences and expectations, and cultivate expertise ‒ from whatever angle it comes ‒ for the benefit of the business.
It is estimated that 12.6 million adults in the UK lack basic digital skills, which could cost the economy £63 billion in lost GDP a year 1.
We all need to do more to turn this trend around. But perhaps the biggest onus is in the workplace.
Organisations across the UK have most to lose if this situation isn’t remedied.
Without upping digital literacy, the pool of talent that businesses will have to draw from will diminish along with their market share as customers migrate to more digitally savvy competitors.
An example of the positive steps being made to plug the skills gap in the UK is the Institute of Coding and government £5 million joint project, which is creating closer ties between stakeholders in the digital economy.
The initiative aims to deliver thousands of courses, including upskilling professionals to better meet the increasingly digital needs of their roles.
In the workplace, business leaders have a critical role to play in the skills revolution.
They need to be pioneers, actively seeking information on new-wave techs, leading education initiatives, and driving a learning-for-life culture.
But they also need to be confident enough to learn alongside their workforces, exploring new ways of working and applications of technology.
Successful businesses have been investing heavily in digital literacy, both in their own workplaces and beyond, for some time already.
For example, Google’s $1 billion investment in digital education and IBM’s $70 million digital skills initiative in Africa.
1) Science and Technology committee report 2) McKinsey, Class of 2030 study