Encouraging girls into tech can help the digital skills shortage

It is estimated around £63bn is lost yearly by British companies collectively due to a lack of digital skills and expertise. Unfortunately, this isn’t a problem the UK is facing alone, but rather is a worldwide issue, and therefore hiring from abroad will not easily solve the problem.

Digital marketing for example, is a sector that has seen huge growth over the past few years and looks like it will continue in this direction, however this will be a struggle for businesses if they cannot find the workers with the right skill sets.

Previous Apprentice winner Mark Wright, who now runs a successful digital marketing agency Climb Online, told the BBC that it is really worrying: “Right now, I have 14 roles immediately available and over the last month we’ve had one application,” he said.

Pre-COVID the digital world was seeing a massive increase in business and tools – social media, Facebook advertising, and Google analytics are all relatively new platforms, and people have not worked with them for a long period of time or had the relevant training. This is leading to a huge digital skills shortage particularly in these areas. COVID has also accelerated the roll-out of a number of new digital tools and platforms – as the world took to online working, the skills that were required also grew.

According to research from LinkedIn, 150 million new technology jobs will be created in the next five years, but if the skills sets are not there, companies will not be able to fill the vacancies. What will happen then?

The UK will be, and in a way already is, heading towards a skills shortage disaster which may come with catastrophic consequences. The BBC also reported that the Learning and Work Institute states the number of young people taking IT subjects at GCSE has dropped 40% since 2015. Digital skills are vital - not just to economic growth, but also recovery from the COVID pandemic.

In the current climate, where a large number of people are losing their jobs, cuts have been made and a large group of people have been furloughed – the decisions and actions taken next will be crucial to ensure we address the digital skills shortage and retrain people into the digital world properly. This industry is here to stay – being one of the sectors that actually grew during the pandemic.

Can girls help solve the problem?

We all know by now there is a massive diversity problem in STEM areas and the digital world, and as highlighted, there is also a huge digital skills gap. So, surely the answer is to encourage more women into the digital workforce and solve two problems in one.

It seems so strange that in an industry that is so advanced, thriving and which has proved imperative over the past year, there is still such a huge gender divide, to the point that it maybe causing itself harm.

We have discussed time and time again about the programmes and initiatives out there to encourage more girls into STEM – the question is whether they are appealing enough, or whether they are ultimately a plethora of empty promises. When the skills gap has caused this much trouble, and the figures around diversity are not really improving, surely this is the wakeup call the industry needs.

For the people who have these digital skills, there is a responsibility to encourage, aid and educate the younger generation to follow in their footsteps. There is a responsibility of the companies to be appealing to the younger generation and to a diverse workforce. There is also a responsibility of the Government to give the incentives to the upcoming generation to train in these subjects and stay in education.

The digital world

The digital world and the tech industry is an exciting, and in a way upcoming space – and may well be showing the younger generation a career path that resonates with them. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, WhatsApp and so many more apps and platforms are currently being used right now – the idea of communication has gone digital and that is all children seem to want to do.

They are arguably the most tech-savvy generation we have ever seen, so why are they experiencing so little exposure to the real-life roles in technology that currently exist? Could it be that we are not doing enough to support the future of STEM subjects when young people are selecting their GCSE and A-Level options, and are certain subjects perceived as being outdated?

Technology comes from humans – we created it and we will create much more if we solve the digital skills gap. Humans have always been innovators and enablers, so let’s start championing this more and encourage more girls to challenge an industry that they may have always felt is not right for them.

Digital is rapidly evolving – and our skill sets are too. Coding is a sector that has seen enormous growth, and currently, we cannot fill the coding jobs fast enough. As the world turns even more towards digital, we are heavily reliant on coding for almost every aspect in life – our cars, phones, banks and hospitals – and therefore coding jobs are crucial.

Encouraging girls into coding in particular is an area that has a lot of initiatives – Girls in Charge, Code First Girls, Girls Who Code – to name a few, and these are actively working to bring more gender diversity into the coding world.

It is important for digital sectors, including coding, to have diverse teams. Men and women have different skills, different strengths and bring different elements to the table. For any modern-day technology firm to thrive, they must come equipped with leaders who are authentic, empathic, and collaborative – and this needs to be a mixture of both men and women.

Closing the gap

The digital skills gender gap can be addressed by helping women and girls improve their digital skills. Essentially, we need to support wider education activities to build digital skills into national education programmes. Programmes which encourage more girls to pursue STEM subjects will also help build the advanced digital skills women need to succeed in ICT careers.

By addressing women’s lower digital literacy and skills will help address the gender gap in mobile access and use across low and middle income countries. It will enhance women’s representation in ICT related industries, and allow them equal participation in the digital economy.

Of course the issue here is not to force women into these jobs to help close the digital skills gap, but essentially to give them the chance and opportunity they deserve to learn more digital skills, so they have more opportunities to fulfil their own goals and ambitions. And again this is a gender issue that is not just facing us here in the UK but worldwide – a report by Plan International stated girls currently lag behind boys in digital fluency in almost every country, and girls are also less likely to have access to mobile phones and the internet, limiting their ability to benefit from digital innovations such as mobile money and online learning.

Actions need to be taken by all country leaders, starting with the same education and opportunities being offered to girls as they are to boys. If we give girls an opportunity to develop digital skills, they will flourish. This could be the answer we are looking for to avoid the digital skills crisis.