Fewer than half of British employers believe young people are leaving full-time education with sufficient advanced digital skills, and 76% of firms think a lack of digital skills will hit their profitability.
The Learning & Work Institute also calculated that the number of young people taking IT at GCSE has gone down by 40% since 2015.
It has been predicted that the future of successful business post pandemic will be in the increasing adoption of robotics, AI and remote digital solutions such as cloud storage and video conferencing.
But is it fair for employers to employers to place responsibility on the education sector? In a fast-changing landscape, how do schools and colleges judge exactly what practical digital knowledge will be needed, especially in such a diverse sector?
There is also an argument that at least some of those skills are best learned “on the job” rather than in an exclusively academic environment.
Should employers become more hands on in working with schools and in using all the various schemes such as apprenticeships and Kick Start to play a more active role in ensuring their employees, present and future can gain the digital skills needed for the future?