Digital skills are at the core of the current economic debate in the UK. Youth unemployment is unacceptably high, wages are too low and employers complain of a skills shortage. Most economic commentators agree that innovation and technology are the future and that there's a need to create a better skilled workforce. But how should this be achieved, how big is the challenge ahead, and are we doing enough to meet it?
Digital is impacting every sector of the economy and is doing so at rapid pace. This is a challenge for employers, educators and young job seekers who are all struggling to keep up with the changes. Also, demand for digital skills is rising. The Future Digital Skills Needs of the UK economy report states that the UK will need, at a minimum, an additional 745,000 workers with digital skills by 2017, with over 169,000 being young people.
Tech startups across the UK complain about the lack of developers and programmers available. Regional businesses have to compete with London, but even in the capital startups have to compete with the likes of Google and Twitter nearby, as well as other European tech hubs and, of course, Silicon Valley. If this country is to create its own Twitter or Facebook it will need more top coding talent.
One of the most troubling observations made by entrepreneurs in different cities is that universities are often not training students in the right things, resulting in students discovering, upon graduation, that their skills are out-of-date or unwanted by employers.
"It's an issue," says Dan Kirby, founder and chief executive of TechDept, an online technology agency based in Sheffield. "If I was going to pay £40,000 for an education I wouldn't be best pleased with the skills I was getting. Students aren't being taught what's done in the market, so we have to retrain people when we take them from university. In our experience, lecturers aren't up to date with the latest tools. In my world practices are changing every six months and so they lose their cutting edge."
Kirby advises students to check carefully the content of their courses and also to use their time wisely to make themselves more employable. "If you are into tech and coding you shouldn't think that universities are the fountain of all knowledge. You have to build your skills and develop an entrepreneurial mindset yourself," he says.
There does seem to be a chasm between education and employment which is exacerbating the skills gap. This is something which Adam Ball recognised when he set-up Coding Cupboard, essentially a "matchmaking service" for businesses and computer science students. Through his site employers can offer short-term freelance projects to students who can help them solve problems while earning cash and improving their CVs. "Rather than stacking shelves during university a student can be working with a business and creating something for their portfolio," says Ball.
It also gives students and businesses a chance to get to know one another and this has led to full-time work for some. "Finding the right person is a struggle for businesses and many feel there's risk with hiring students. Students often have great skills but don't know how to sell their skill sets to businesses," Ball says.
But the lack of digital skills are being felt right across the economy – not just among the programming sector. The media, marketing and creative industries are also having difficulties finding "oven-ready" employees and there are calls for more training from employers in the public sector and retail, too. A number of initiatives have been launched in an attempt to plug the gap, and it's likely there will be more in the future.
D-Day
The British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) now runs the Digital Day challenge where schools are paired with digital agencies to create a project for their community with digital design, social media, apps or coding. About 4,000 young people from just over 100 schools took part last year, and more are expected for 2014. Ostensibly, it seems to be a great way to improve awareness and interest in the digital industry. It is also a way for employers to interact closely with schools and build bridges to entry.
However, BIMA's own research into the participants from 2012 suggests a serious lack of awareness among young people of the nature of the industry and the job roles within it. Of those surveyed 75% of school children said they had "never seen any information or been taught about the digital industry". Indeed most (63%) were unaware of the variety of job roles, many thinking the digital industry was for people with highly technical skills prior to the competition. The report suggested this might be an intimidating factor for young people.
What to do?
Businesses are struggling to recruit talent and are putting projects on hold until they do. There's at least an acknowledgment from industry that the problem needs to be tackled, but without substantially more resource, awareness and commitment it's hard to argue that the UK will overcome this issue in the near future. Yet courses and online resources are available for individuals and businesses that want to skill-up. The UK as a whole might struggle with its digital skills gap, but entrepreneurs determined to sort out their own shortcomings can often do so.
Courses
Codecademy offers free and interactive tutorials in all main computer languages which can take a novice through to competency via a series of baby steps. Beautifully simple.
The Association of Town and City Management and the National Skills Academy for Retail have teamed up to deliver a series of training days across the country with the aim to train up 3,000 business owners this year.
Provides free walk-through videos that allow you to watch the coders at work without missing a keystroke. The growing site has a range of topics mostly in HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.
Provides both tutorials, references and resources for all main majority computer languages, useful for both beginners and the adept.
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