Why you should care about upskilling: adapting in the face of the UK Skills Gap
The world of work is changing. Over 50% of businesses are experiencing a skill shortage in their organisation, with the current gap posing a huge threat to business growth and competitive edge. Despite the existence current UK policy and government funding, it may not be enough to resolve the growing UK skills gap challenge.
What is the UK Skills Gap?
According to the recent Office for National Statistics, in 2022 the UK had an estimated 1.3 million open vacancies, and business leaders are finding it increasingly more difficult to fill those roles. The UK Skills Gap is the difference between new vacancies advertised and the skills available in the workforce to meet the demand. More specifically, the UK is experiencing a Data Skills Gap, with 48% of businesses recruiting for data roles, and around 178,000–234,000 data roles available.
What has caused it and why is it continuing to grow?
There are several reasons why this gap exists. The advancement in technology, such as artificial intelligence and automation, means that the current types of roles advertised require a different skill set than before, and there are not enough individuals with the correct skill stack to fill them. Our higher education system may also be an influence, with a large majority of employers stating that current graduates are lacking skills such as basic IT skills to enable them to be work ready, and that higher education courses are still focusing on theory rather than providing the experience of handling real world problems and solutions. The shift in work post pandemic, where retraining needed to be crucially encouraged, instead evoked negative perceptions towards reskilling due to the failure of the ‘Rethink. Reskill. Reboot’ government marketing campaign is another reason why it is continuing to grow.
Impact on businesses and individuals
On a business level, the skills gap is expensive. A limited number of potential candidates with the required skills in a highly sought-after area, means that recruitment takes longer with higher recruitment cost (also due to negotiation of higher salaries). It could also hinder the ability to expand the business, if cost is shifted towards training employees who are onboarded at a lower technical level than initially expected.
On the other hand, on an individual level many are finding that the types of jobs available are different to ever before. If those individuals are significantly under-skilled for the job, it could result in lower work productivity, a decrease in job satisfaction, or complete job loss.
So far, it all sounds daunting. However, where there is a gap, there is also opportunity. By analysing the data of the current most desirable skills and demanding professions, both businesses and individuals can leverage this information to become prepared to develop to come out on top.
What are the skills and professions identified as being in shortage?
In terms of the UK Skills Gap, by 2030 it is projected that there will be:
- 21.2 million workers under skilled in basic digital skills
- 11.0 million workers under skilled in leadership and managing others
- 10.7 million workers under skilled in critical thinking and decision making
- 10.6 million workers under skilled in advanced communication and negotiation
Vacancies in roles such as management, ICT, engineering, health, and teaching are likely to continue growing by 19% until 2030, meanwhile roles in administration and secretarial work will likely see a 17% decrease by 2030.
Meanwhile, when looking at the UK Data Skills Gap specifically, the biggest shortages are in cyber security, big data and analysis as well as data architecture. Multiple reports show that data analysis is the fasters growing skills cluster, and therefore a Data Analyst role is the number one role that businesses are recruiting for. The 5 skills which have the biggest gap between perceived importance and perceived performance are information management, communication, data communications skills, knowledge of emerging technologies and solutions and data literacy.
How can upskilling help you?
Upskilling simply means learning new skills. Doing so helps both individuals and businesses to remain competitive in an ever-changing work environment. Data literacy is a specified skill and knowledge set, which individuals can call upon to help them transform data into information and actionable knowledge through accessing, interpreting, critically assessing, managing, and ethically using data. Focusing on building up your data literacy will improve some of the technical skills listed above, but also soft skills like resilience, flexibility, analytical thinking, and innovation. Business leaders are demanding people with a mix of both technical and soft skills.
As Data Analysts are in demand, let’s use this role as an example. Research by Nesta has described a perfect data analyst profile. Within this profile, are 4 main categories:
- Core Skills — both analytical and technical
2. Domain and Business knowledge — knowledge of your desired sector and awareness of their business processes and goals
3. Soft skills — crucially teamwork and storytelling using data
4. Competencies — creativity, curiosity, and analytical mindset as the top 3.
Working on any one of these categories will help you acquire foundational skills that are currently needed by the business world. With these you can add value to the workforce beyond what automated systems will be able to do which can future-proof your career. Research in a McKinsey and Company report lists 56 foundational skills that will help individuals to thrive in the future of work. These will be useful in a wide range of sectors, from finance, communications and media, healthcare, insurance, retail to transportation and logistics.
How do I practically set off to upskill?
For individuals, the challenge of upskilling can be a discouraging prospect. In a world where everyone’s time is extremely limited it means dedicating additional time and effort to learn new skills, but also deciding what the right progression path is. You can follow this path as a methodological and practical journey to upskilling.
1) Assess your current skills gap. Complete a self-analysis of your current strengths and weaknesses. You may find it helpful to ask for some 360-degree feedback from co-workers and friends and family to help you.
2) Set goals. What skills do you want to work towards? Is it a hard skill or soft skill? Maybe its increasing knowledge about business domain or developing a competency. Whichever you choose, try to stick to one at a time.
3) Address the skill through an upskilling strategy. Will you work on the skill through online webinars and training material, or maybe opt for microlearning? Or perhaps you want it to be more focused on learning through mentoring and coaching from others?
4) Practice your skills and gain experience. This could be through project work, volunteering to gain experience, shadowing someone. The list on how to achieve this is huge!
5) Know how to sell yourself and continue learning and practicing. Work on perfecting your CV and interview skills so that you can correctly sell yourself when going for the new job with your new skill set.
However, let’s remember an important point. The opportunity to upskill cannot fall on the individual alone. Despite all this pressure and businesses quantifying the importance of data skills for their companies, half of workers have not received any data skills training within the last 2 years! This is a huge concern as regular training is important to keep up to date with the latest developments, and to refresh knowledge.
How can businesses and society support upskilling and help to decrease the Skills Gap?
Firstly, businesses need to invest in in-house training and development programmes for their teams. This could be through regular bite-sized chunk webinars, or short-term coding bootcamps. If the graduate talent pool is not enough to bridge the gap, then investment needs to be put into helping the team which already exists to be agile, creative and have an analytical mindset. Secondly, higher education institutions should work together with business sectors to identify the skills that will be needed soon to meet the future demand. With that, data analysis techniques should be embedded into all courses and programmes, regardless of field, to help build those foundational skills. Finally, business should help to provide clarity to the emerging workforce on the pathways to in-demand professions, as well as building up a data reputation, by showcasing the exciting and creating work which is happening in data.
Summary
The UK Skills Gap shows no signs of slowing down. Although the statistics can look daunting, if taken with the correct approach, the numbers also show an incredible opportunity for the future of work. By taking on an agile mindset, and learning various hard and soft skills, individuals can be ready to approach any challenge of the future world of work. Meanwhile, businesses should be providing opportunities and investment for this mindset to be enabled.
References:
https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/model_workers_web_2.pdf
