Technologies like AI and VR are opening countless doors of possibility for businesses, the real needs of the tech industry lie with skills training, says Damon Culbert
As the digital world expands, the need for trained staff who understand how it operates is growing at a similar rate across almost every industry in the world.
The global digital skills shortage was measured at approximately 3 million in 2018 and could cost the UK economy approximately £141 billion in GDP growth. Employers and recruiters, globally, have been tasked with finding new ways to attract the best talent to fill the vacancies and are using everything at their disposal to advertise their businesses as the place to work.
In the past few years, digital businesses have been characterised by inflated salaries and a heavy reliance on strong social culture to make their roles as attractive as possible. However, recruiters are now more keenly aware that jobs are being left vacant because of a lack of practical and social literacy when it comes to the workplace.
Recruiters have stated that candidates for tech careers lack both the technical ability and the transferrable soft skills to go straight into work, leading to major shortages across the board. Because graduates don’t have the relevant practical experience to excel and many don’t have the personal skills to perform well in the workplace, the solution must be identified before they hit the job market to ensure that more candidates dedicating so much of their time to the industry are able to showcase their skills and develop themselves once out of university.
Additionally, as the tech sector becomes more sophisticated, understanding of specialist technologies such as cloud computing and cryptography/cryptocurrency are becoming a requirement in a more diverse range of sectors, so the skills of graduates need to reflect the demands of the industry.
Countless graduates are leaving courses with no experience in how to do the jobs they’re expected to fill and so recruiters are now looking for ways to draw in not only the necessary bodies but also those with the talents to go straight into work.
As new technologies like AI and VR become more commonplace and advanced, their potential as tools of recruitment is becoming more attractive to major businesses. Examples of VR experiences businesses are making use of include immersive office tours at university career days, simulated challenges for specific tasks and, in some cases, entirely virtual interview scenarios to gauge how candidates react in ‘real-life’ situations.
Jaguar used a mixed reality public code-breaking challenge on their website to identify potential engineers which tested creativity, lateral thinking and problem-solving – all soft skills identified as lacking in the job market. This task involved assembling an electric Jaguar sports car and would have been entirely impossible without VR.
Additionally, Lloyds bank used VR to test candidates’ ability to respond to computer generated workplace-style scenarios to better understand how applicants operated outside of an interview environment. On one hand, these challenges offer a better insight into candidates’ abilities beyond interview, which can be challenging for some candidates, but this level of money and time invested into the recruitment process does little to solve the overarching shortage being felt from top to bottom across the digital sector.
If recruiters are identifying the problem as a lack of skills or experience, candidates are going to continually struggle to break into the industry without an exceptional amount of extracurricular or unpaid work. While major companies like Jaguar and Lloyds are able to invest large amounts of money into these innovative experiences, are the candidates getting any enrichment from them which will help them once they’ve secured the job?
Solutions to the digital skills gap will need to come both from employers and educators to ensure that those studying technology-focused courses are provided with rich opportunities to learn. These will need to still be academically-minded but with tangible benefits outside of university which help direct students to opportunities once they’ve graduated.
The demand for skills in the tech sector will need to be tackled before candidates enter the job market to have the most immediate effect. Some ways that institutions could focus the learning of their students to help them in the job market include the following.
Offering courses/modules to help develop students’ practical skills
This could include focus on emerging technologies like the cloud, AI and cryptography so that students have at least a basic understanding of how these technologies work and have a foundation of knowledge they can build on in their own time to hone their skills.
More involvement with businesses in the local area
Businesses and institutions will need to work together to create opportunities and develop both hard and soft skills for tech graduates to take advantage of. This could take the form of more working placements for students so that the requirement for experience is already met before they’ve even graduated.
A consideration of soft skills
Education institutions must also remember to develop their students’ lateral skills like teamwork, leadership and creative thinking. This could be by focusing on group work, encouraging extracurricular group activities or signposting to relevant resources where students can show off their talents while also exercising their social abilities.
At lower levels of education, exercises like hackathons can be a useful way of raising awareness of tech careers and of developing teamwork skills for younger students. Digitally-focused hackathons can also be a way to introduce tech literacy for students who may not otherwise get the chance.
While developing the skills of fresh candidates will be a vital objective for educational organisations, businesses must also consider what they can put in place to shore up the digital skills gap for those already in the job market. Practices employers can put in place to support candidates include the following.
Working with institutions to tackle the common issues students face
As previously mentioned, businesses and universities can work together to offer more placements to help students gain vital skills before graduation. Another potential way businesses can support institutions is through creating incentives for extracurricular work – problem-solving projects with rewards like Jaguar’s immersive experience on a smaller scale could be a useful way of encouraging students to get involved in the career market and also give them an idea of the skills employers are looking for while they still have the time to get practicing.
Integrating training with entry-level jobs
Although it’s desirable for every company to have candidates who can get straight into work and know what they’re doing with no training, this just isn’t realistic for the majority of jobs and could mean losing out on candidates with the desired work ethic and dedication to grow a business. Working training programs that help new hires get to grips with the required systems and help them understand the kind of skills they’ll need to strengthen could unlock the potential of many candidates who otherwise wouldn’t have had the chance.
While new technologies like AI and VR are exciting and open countless doors of possibility, the real needs of the tech industry lie with skills training. Employers will need to focus on this to ensure that digital jobs in every sector are filled with capable candidates who are confident in their ability to do the job.
Damon Culbert is Content and Off Page SEO Specialist at Cyber Security Professionals, a worldwide specialist cyber security job site
