Claire Arbery, director at West of England Institute of Technology, says, after reading recent headlines about digital skills shortage – do we know what this means to the parents of school pupils and OUR future workforce? How do we go about changing this?
Background
A recent report published by The Learning & Work Institute and the BBC had the headline The UK is heading towards a "catastrophic" digital skills shortage "disaster". The report then went on to describe that not enough students follow computer science or IT at secondary school, and that this is widening the divide between the number of people able to fulfil roles and those roles that are available.
A parent’s view
As a parent, the thought of a ‘Digital Skills Job’ had me thinking of the stereotypical darkened room, banks of screens type scenario as played out in many films and TV broadcasts. This is a perception of many parents, and whilst this is not the case, the main influencers of students (their parents) are not going to actively encourage their child to follow this route.
Impact of Schools
The second biggest influencers of students, (our future staff), are their teachers, and research has shown that a good teacher can inspire a young person on their career journey, and a poor one can put students off a subject for life. Unfortunately, Computing, IT or Digital Skills are not a priority for many schools. Many schools do not have a teacher trained to deliver Computer Science within their staff workforce. In relation to incentives for schools to deliver this, digital skills do not feature in any performance measure for school outcomes, and therefore do not get the same level of attention as English, Maths and Sciences. You could argue that being ‘Digitally skilled’ is as important as English and Maths to future generations, but I am not a Whitehall Policy Maker.
So where does this leave us?
As employers and educators, we need to show the real breadth of opportunities within the digital skills arena and the jobs related to this. Digital skills are not just about the IT infrastructure that makes us connected, it is so much more, but we do not shout loudly to show what digital skills really are to the wider world.
We have the capacity within our collective voice to show all the trades, skills and sectors supported by, and delivered by digital skills. I don’t think any sector is untouched by the need for Digital Skills for the future, who would of thought that the hospitality sector would have embraced QR codes and Apps, if asked 2 years ago?
As the West of England Institute of Technology, we are committed to creating more opportunities for more young people to access training at a higher level to make the most of the prospects of the future.
Whilst there is a void in the education system around digital skills it is our duty to promote to the students all the possibilities that digital skills can open for them, and how to access support and training locally.
We need to show to the wider public that the jobs involving digital skills are not only those portrayed in TV and films, digital has so much more to offer.
What do you think?
How do we show the workforce of tomorrow the true breadth and opportunity with ‘Digital Skills and Jobs’? If we can’t describe it, how do we expect others to understand it?
Let me know what you think,