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9 February 2019
Digital skills: urgent call

Many companies confide to us that it is increasingly difficult to hire specialists with digital skills since the mix of competences that would make the difference in their digital transformation journey is hard to find on the labour market. The skill mismatch is now a widespread issue, as almost any business process requires some digital know-how.

According to European Union records, by 2020 about nine jobs out of 10 will entail technological expertise, but only one employee out of 3 believes to be ready for this. In a couple of years, we will lack about 825 thousand professionals, and there will be up to 500 thousand job vacancies. Companies will have more problems in developing and managing their business services, tracking and improving key internal processes, boosting marketing and sales.

Lots of organisations are trying to close the skills gap by growing digital champions internally. A recent survey by Vodafone provides some interesting insights into the perception of training and education in different geographies, pointing out relevant cultural differences.

The majority of US employees feel that companies should be responsible for empowering workers’ digital skills, and about 24% of respondents said this responsibility falls on the government. In Asia, the willingness to improve personal skills in one’s leisure time is far greater: about 50% of Chinese and Indian interviewees spend between one and five hours per week on developing individual know-how, and 20% is ready to invest even more time. In Sweden, these figures fall to 26% and 6%, respectively.

Generally speaking, employers need to grant their staff more time and resources for digital training. 40% of Chinese companies dedicate between one and five hours of the working week, while only 12% does the same in the United Kingdom. The truly cross-geography statement is about the importance of lifelong learning, that two-thirds of global respondents mention as a growing necessity in the future.

In our experience, the lack of internal skills as a stumbling block for digital transformation is a myth to be debunked. Although having a strong internal digital know-how would be ideal, working with a trusted technology partner as Omninecs might help the company accelerate innovation, and maximise the ROI of mission-critical projects. We offer compelling training services to customers willing to take advantage of our technological competences, and always look for talented people to grow our staff and provide further value to our stakeholders.