The coronavirus pandemic made a significant impact on the working world. With offices shutting and people ordered to work from home, suddenly everything was digital. This digital shift doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon with around 50% of the UK workforce still doing their job from home as of September 2021.
Most businesses have begun digitalising their everyday operations. As a result, they are finding themselves in need of more skilled employees who are comfortable working with emerging technologies.
This has led to a digital skills gap in the market that needs closing. Businesses will continue to rely on digital operations into the distant future so the world needs more people trained in digital and here’s how this could be achieved.
Education
It’s never too late to learn new skills but it’s even better to teach children from a young age as this is the most optimal time for the brain to pick up new skills. Teaching the necessary digital skills in school will set them up for life. However, with a 40% drop in people taking GCSE IT since 2015, fewer and fewer children are being exposed to new digital skills that they will need in later life.
By making IT a mandatory GSCE, children may gain more skills that can turn into a career. For example, they could develop their digital skills by taking on coding projects in their lessons which could then lead them down a path to becoming a programmer, engineer, or developer. Industries that are experiencing major shortages of workers at the moment.
Gender stereotypes
One other cause of the skills gap is due to gender stereotyping from a young age. Many younger girls are told that they don’t belong in tech and so they don’t need to worry about developing their digital skills. This has left the industry being male-dominated with fewer women possessing the necessary skills to break into it.
To combat this, digital skills should be more accessible for girls and women. It needs to be made more appealing, so more want to learn the new skills in the first place. One way of doing it is making sure girls have information on what working in digital industry entails and what jobs are available. As well as encouraging and motivating them to believe that they belong in this sector just as much as their male peers.
Upskill
Connecting businesses and young people that want a career in digital is vital. If a greater number of businesses are encouraged to provide apprenticeships or internships then more people can develop their skills so they are ready for a full-time position when the time comes.
Many businesses struggle to find people with existing skill sets but often the best way to find new talent for your business is to simply train a hardworking individual. Moreover, it is important to provide relevant training for existing employees too, ensuring they are up to date with newest technologies.
