The tech skills gap remains a hot topic, and unless something is done quickly, there is no obvious solution in sight

19 Jul 2019 03:34 PM

Nomad Digital is a North East based business, and we compete to attract the best talent to help us innovate and develop products that support customers right around the world. We are not alone in this mission, there are many other great companies here, and across the rest of the United Kingdom, that face the same challenge. Niche and popular technical skills remain the hardest to attract, and the industry needs to find more innovative ways to help develop and expand these skills. But we cannot do this alone, we need to work with schools, colleges, universities, start-ups, other businesses in our community and with Government to find ways to alleviate the pressure on businesses in the UK. The problem is widespread, in all engineering, software, and technically oriented businesses. As businesses also look to improve team diversity, this presents further challenges.

Currently in the North East there are 28,000 employees in the IT & Digital sector and by 2020, it’s estimated that the North East’s Digital sector will become a £2.5bn industry. Great News...Yes, but does this mean the obvious skills shortage will become even more of a problem? With the regions software and IT industry cluster growing by 30.7% - 2nd highest in the UK only behind London and the five universities here having the highest proportion of students studying STEM subjects in the UK, does this mean we have the opportunity to really change the problem? And what can businesses do to determine and support the curriculum with the skills needed?

Ref: https://investnortheastengland.co.uk/sectors/it-and-digital/

All of the above questions are valid. It is very positive to see the technical sector continuing to develop, grow and mature right across the UK. If the skills challenge is to be addressed, businesses need to act and not solely rely on others to solve the problem. Nomad Digital and NCFE are working with groups like Dynamo and with their members to determine ways in which this can be done. Nomad lead a session at the 2019 annual Dynamo conference on this important topic together with several other companies to not only present the issue, but also to seek feedback from others so that a plan of action could be agreed. We would also welcome interaction with colleges, universities and schools to determine practical ways to tackle the issue. A lot of this work needs to start at the school level, to develop and foster an interest and love of all things technical, so that more young people get engaged in tertiary technical education ideally leading on to technically related careers.

This year Nomad Digital along with NCFE and other partners are running ‘The Rocket Hack’ hackathon, in Newcastle, for the very first time and we welcome young people and start-ups to join us at what should be a great event. For launch details and live information, you can follow @TheRocketHack on Twitter and Instagram. The Rocket Hack will provide a chance to actively work with innovative people and companies who want to look at non-traditional ways of recruiting the right people with the right skills and working in partnerships. We are also investing in local conferences, apprenticeships, work experience and getting involved with schools to help young people get exposure to what we do and the skills that we need. If everyone can do similar things, we can make a difference. Employee engagement & retention remains an issue for us all, but if we can build increased levels of technical skill capacity in the economy, then everyone will benefit.

It is becoming vital that we tackle the tech skills shortage, as many jobs that exist today may be replaced by machines and artificial intelligence, and some jobs that will be undertaken in 10 to 20 years’ time have not even been invented yet. Our best and brightest minds need to help us all react, navigate and pioneer the opportunities presented to us by this technology advancement.

I look forward to sharing more on the skills gap topic in part two of my blog.

About Nomad Digital

Nomad Digital is the world’s leading provider of passenger and fleet connectivity solutions. It is dedicated to delivering an enhanced service, offering benefits to passengers and operators by improving connectivity for trains, metros, trams and buses globally.

It’s integrated, and scalable solutions include the multi-award-winning Passenger WiFi, enabling seamless connectivity with the internet and on-board infotainment.

Nomad is the pioneer of the Intelligent journey – a shared and secure network infrastructure to which all authorised on-board systems and passenger devices may connect.

Reece Donovan (Bio)

Reece is the Group CEO of Nomad Digital, with over 25 years of experience in the Information Technology sector across multiple industries. Previously Nomad's Group Chief Operating Officer for three years, Reece was accountable for all delivery and services globally for Nomad Digital. Prior to joining Nomad in 2014, Reece was Senior Vice President of Global Services at CSG International, a leader in the provision of Cable and Telecommunications billing solutions. Before this, Reece was President of Global Services at Intec Telecom, a global listed software company, and COO of system integrator Steria’s Enterprise Practice.