The Institute of Engineering and Technology (EIT) tasked YouGov to conduct a survey to assess the UK digital skills gap, its impact on employers and possible solutions to this challenge.
The results show that there is a digital skills gap in the technology sector and is having a serious impact on businesses, according to engineering employers. Fortunately, these employers believe that their workforce is flexible and offers solutions to existing gaps. Thestudy presents the following main perspectives:
Digital skills landscape
Many engineering firms report having at least some staff members who regularly use robotics/automation (47 %), artificial intelligence (45 %) and virtual reality (32 %). However, far fewer companies have a majority of staff using these technologies. For most cases, ‘digital skills’ are broadly defined. It/Communications generally have a better understanding of the range and specificities of digital skills in the engineering profession.
Current workforce
it needs half of the employers in the engineering sector report problems related to the skills in the external labour market of technical workers (54 %) and the current technical/technical workforce (47 %). A digital skills gap could hold back the UK economy. Of employers who report a digital skills gap in their technical workforce, 49 % say it is detrimental to productivity, 35 % say that it limits growth, 35 % say that they are harming innovation and 29 % say that they reduce their ability to contract.
Level of
skills of engineering employers
Technicians are most likely considered an important level of staff for organisations (88 %) and for employers with skills gaps at this level, almost half provide additional training to counter this (48 %). Around three out of ten people with skills gaps at technician level are changing recruitment plans as a result, for example to recruit more technicians to obtain the required coverage (29 %) or recruit at other levels (28 %).
Technical trainingof
engineering employers identify technical skills shortages through qualitative feedback from managers (61 %) and skills audits (31 %). Data show that 87 % of employers organise or fund some form of training. The most common forms of training are at work (70 %), internal programmes (51 %), e-learning (51 %) and formal qualifications (51 %). The findings show that 44 % of engineering employers provide training in digital skills to their employees. However, large employers (58 %) are more than twice as likely to provide training in digital skills to their employees (27 %).
The
futureis expected
digital skills in emerging technologies will be more important in the near future than today, such as artificial intelligence (36 %), extended reality (22 %) and quantum engineering/computing (22 %). Three quarters say that their technical/technical staff can apply existing skill sets to new situations and could adapt to new technologies (74 %). In terms of skills gaps in the near future, 31 % of employers say that artificial intelligence/machine learning will be important for the growth of the sector. However, 50 % of these employers say they do not have the necessary skills in this area.
Digital skills acquisition strategies;
half of engineering employers have a strategy for integrating digital skills into their workplace (51 %). SMEs are less likely to have a strategy for this (41 %). For 92 % of those with a digital skills strategy, they will need additional skills to implement it. Employers say that the biggest impact the government could have is to support them as they reskill the existing workforce (58 %), to provide more funding for apprenticeships (39 %) and to support schools and colleges in providing better career counselling (33 %).