Equipping everyone for the digital revolution
The independent UK Digital Skills Taskforce has published its report into the supply of digital skills to the UK economy, calling for greater collective action between businesses and Government to enhance wider participation in the digital economy as well as nurture the next generation of talented programmers and developers. Some of the report’s key recommendations include
- a campaign to tackle the gap between the perceptions and the reality of the growing importance of digital skills
- ensure that training providers are developing their apprentices’ digital skills
- help teachers and parents to understand the benefits of apprenticeships.
- include a digital component to education and training opportunities for young people up to the age of 19
- and treat computing as a fourth ‘core science’.
- schools provide CPD opportunities for computing teachers to deepen their subject knowledge and develop their teaching style
One of the report’s biggest concerns is the lack of diversity within the tech workforce. Government and sector bodies must provide effective leadership to tackle this issue. Employers have an important role to play in tacking this issue by appointing more women onto their boards and identifying the underlying reasons for low recruitment and retention levels of women.
The wide-ranging report should give Government, employers and professional bodies much to consider as to how they provide everyone with a platform to learn and develop the basic and advanced digital skills that will be so important in the coming years. With more and more jobs becoming ‘digitised’, it is vital for the future of the UK economy that we ensure our workforce has the necessary skills to embrace this change.