Employers report worrying gaps in core digital skills – unexpectedly, even in under 24s, nearly half are unable to complete core tasks
We recently held an event, The Dorset People Festival, aimed at bringing businesses and training organisations together to help fill the skills gap that many employers report when recruiting staff.
Quite surprisingly, one of the major issues that came out was the digital skills gap that employers are reporting as a real issue within businesses. We invited an organisation along to the event called Future.now and they spoke of the research they have been doing on the size and impact of the digital skills gap. Our Local Skills Improvement Plan, reviewing the skills needs of business, has also identified this as an issue.
Essential skills
There are 20 core digital skills tasks that government and industry consider essential over five different core areas: communicating, handling content and information, transacting, problem solving and being safe and legal online.
The skills gaps they report are concerning and also evident across all sectors.
They report that the construction industry has the lowest levels of Essential Digital Skills, with only 35% of people within construction able to do all 20 core tasks.
Far more suprisingly, 20% of people working in the tech sector don’t have all 20 tasks.
We might presume that this is much less of an issue for younger people that have grown up in this digital age – but almost half of them (48% of 18 to 24 year olds) are unable to do all tasks. Unsurprisingly, it is much more of an issue for the over 65s: 71% in this age bracket are unable to complete all 20 core tasks.
Not just work
As technology becomes ever more embedded in our daily lives, the need to bridge the digital skills gap has never been more urgent. A growing number of organisations are stepping up to meet this challenge. Educational providers are weaving digital literacy into their core curriculum, recognising it as a fundamental life skill. Local authorities are launching targeted initiatives to support digital inclusion, helping individuals across all age groups gain the confidence and capability to navigate an increasingly online world.
The economic impact of digital exclusion is substantial – but there is also the need to help people outside of the workplace improve their digital skills in order to live their daily lives.
This is becoming an increasing issue that we must address.
