I have worked in the marketing industry for 25 years and watched it evolve as it embraces all things digital revolutionising the way we communicate. It is a thriving, vibrant industry, but I believe the current digital skills gap has the potential to severely stunt the future growth of the sector at the very time it is growing in importance to UK business.
When you consider that the growth and success of every industry and sector in the UK is intrinsically linked to companies embracing digital as a vital part of their operation, the skills gap between the number of roles available (and the roles that will come online in the next five years) and the amount of trained, capable and ready people should be occupying the minds of everyone from small agency owners to Whitehall policy makers.
From industry organisations bemoaning the lack of work ready skills that graduates possess, to companies valiantly trying to retrain their staff, the skills gap is already posing short term, medium term and long term problems that are destabilising businesses. First of all, the demand for experienced staff across the sector is outstripping supply and this has driven salaries for many roles to an unsustainable level. As Dave Bowers, Head of Design at Evolutia comments:
“The main problem has been retaining talent — it’s an industry-wide issue, particularly in Digital Marketing, where it is begrudgingly accepted that the average tenure falls significantly short of the UK standard. Unfortunately, in such a young industry without much academic training available, candidates are learning on the job and bailing for higher salaries as opportunities present themselves.”
This environment is contributing to an unwanted by-product; the uncertainty of being able to increase staffing levels quickly without paying disproportionate contractor rates makes it difficult for companies to effectively plan for upcoming projects, and can even result in turning down work. Manchester Digital reported in February that 57 per cent of digital agencies in Greater Manchester had turned down profitable work in 2014 due to lack of personnel capacity.
So what is the solution?
The irony is that for an industry that is all about communication, there is a lack of cohesiveness and joined up thinking. In the absence of an agreed policy, everyone is looking to solve the same problem in their own way. On the one hand, this means that the answers have already been found, and there are many initiatives up and running that are valuable and will start to reverse the flow –such as Code Club teaching kids some essential basics at a much earlier age, ensuring that the future workforce is beginning to be equipped.
On the other, the stark truth is that the capacity of these initiatives, often in isolated pockets across the country, do not meet the demand. Bridging the digital skills gap needs to be tackled by government, business and education departments opening themselves to digital leaders and pulling together a full co-ordinated strategy, much in the same way export strategies or education initiatives are put in place, to ensure that there is a supply of young or retrained talent coming into the jobs market who can propel companies forward. The next government is set to continue the work of rebalancing the post-industrial workforce in a landscape where traditional fall back sectors are no longer able to absorb workers. Retooling people to give them useful, viable digital skills is a logical next step.
If we can address this now, the future is bright.
Julian Gratton, Managing Director and Creative Director, at Red C comments:
“I think the next generation of creative talent has the potential to be truly ground breaking. It's a generation that doesn't know life before the internet. A generation that has been surrounded by constant innovation. There has never been a better time to be involved in the creative industries and this generation has some wonderful tools and foundations of thinking to support them and push on from. As an industry, we're steadily heading out of one of the worst recessions in years and confidence is coming back into the market. Clients are spending again and that means the opportunities for students entering the job market are plentiful.”
The digital industry is still in its relative infancy with a skill set that is still being developed and discovered, but the role it will play in the future of the UK economy means that it shouldn’t be fighting for scraps at the table.
By Julie Ollerton, Managing Director of Creative Resource.
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