SMART SKILLS Partnership and Engagement Manager, Sean Gibson, talks about digital skills in the workplace.

“The past 18 months have been an interesting period for businesses where many have been tested and all have been required to operate in a more flexible way. For many years we have all faced a digital revolution but all of this was accelerated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of us now work with the support of digital technologies to a greater extent than any other time in the past. We host virtual meetings, attend online networking, use online applications and file sharing technology and many of these were unknown to us 18 months ago. The throttle was activated in 2020 and it doesn’t feel like the pace of change is going to ease up anytime soon. This does potentially cause a couple of potential challenges for the future.

Are we confident that our colleagues have been able to keep up with the need for digital change? 88% of young people realise that higher digital skills will be required in the future but what plans have you put in place to ensure that people joining your business have the required digital skills? With 60% of businesses predicting that a greater reliance on higher digital skills will be required over the next 5 years, what plans are in place for the future?

These issues cannot be ignored as 76% of businesses feel that a shortage of digital skills in the future will impact upon their profitability and competitiveness. To help businesses, and individuals, to keep a competitive edge SMART SKILLS has created a range of digital skills courses to support your future skills needs; funded by the European Social Fund. Whether you are looking for basic IT skills, Social Media training, or how IT may help you manage projects more effectively I think there may be fully funded workshops which will be able to help.”