UK Facing Growing Digital Skills Gap

Posted on: 24 Sep 2017

Whether you’re applying for FMCG jobs or printing jobs, in today’s world you’ll need to have at least some basic digital skills.

However, new research by Barclays has found that 43 per cent of people in the UK don’t have the digital skills required by most jobs.

What’s more, the survey revealed that by improving your digital skills you could earn an additional £10,000 per year. The skills in question include programming and software design, while graphic design, 3D modelling and data skills could also see you boost your income by around £3,000 annually.

But we’re also lacking in more basic digital skills, the research found, with 63 per cent of roles requiring knowledge of spreadsheets, word processing or databases. However, just 57 per cent of those surveyed believe they have the necessary skills to tick these boxes.

CEO of Barclays UK Ashok Vaswani commented: “Digital skills can provide a vital boost to household finances and everyone deserves the opportunity to benefit from this.”

He added that it will become even more important for the UK workforce to develop and improve their digital skills after Brexit.

Earlier this year, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport launched a survey to assess the UK’s digital skills in all areas, with the aim of identifying what’s required for an advanced and specialist digital workforce.

Computer Weekly reported that this survey isn’t only aimed at the digital and technology sector, but also wants to explore what digital expertise is required in other sectors, such as retail and financial services.