{"id":42103,"date":"2021-05-17T11:46:30","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T11:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/?guid=5e44a748750687c87a71bbbae9621d9b"},"modified":"2021-05-17T11:46:30","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T11:46:30","slug":"17-1-million-brits-lack-essential-digital-skills-for-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/17-1-million-brits-lack-essential-digital-skills-for-work\/","title":{"rendered":"17.1 million Brits lack essential digital skills for work"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Sabina Weston<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
17 May, 2021<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Over 17 million people in the UK lack essential digital skills (EDS) for work, while less than a quarter (23%) of employees reported having received any digital skills training from their employer.<\/p>\n

That’s\u00a0according to a new report released by FutureDotNow, a coalition of companies and civil society groups working in collaboration with the UK government to boost the nation\u2019s digital skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThe coalition, which counts\u00a0BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT<\/a>,\u00a0Dropbox<\/a>,\u00a0CompTIA<\/a>, and\u00a0BT<\/a>\u00a0among its members, defines EDS as accessing payslips, booking shifts and leave, avoiding\u00a0social media<\/a>\u00a0disasters, basic\u00a0password<\/a>\u00a0practice, using\u00a0cloud storage<\/a>, analysing data, synchronising information across multiple devices, as well as basic\u00a0cyber security<\/a>\u00a0skills such as being able to\u00a0identify suspicious emails<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of these are not being addressed by the majority of UK organisations, the report has found. It also warns businesses of the risks presented by the lack of EDS among employees, such as slowing the adoption of digital processes, which negatively impacts\u00a0business productivity<\/a>\u00a0and financial performance. This, in turn, leads to businesses being held back and the UK\u2019s global competitiveness reduced.<\/p>\n

FutureDotNow chief executive Liz Williams said that the report \u201creveals a hidden middle between digital exclusion and advanced digital skills which needs addressing urgently\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a significant part of our workforce without the essential digital skills required for the new global digital world we\u2019re competing in. Great businesses are underpowered like\u00a0smartphones<\/a>\u00a0with a flat battery because their workforces lack these essential digital skills.<\/p>\n

“FutureDotNow and its members, who are already seeing the power of working together to upskill their employees, will be able to help them take action. And\u00a0our Playbook<\/a>, launched today is a practical guide to identifying missing essential digital skills and how to go about upskilling employees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0techUK<\/a>\u00a0president Jacqueline de Rojas CBE, the pandemic has revealed \u201can increase in people wanting and needing to acquire essential digital skills\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has created positive momentum in driving the UK\u2019s digital adoption which we must maintain in order to address the growing mismatch in the demand and supply of digital skills in the UK. FutureDotNow\u2019s initiative to encourage business leaders to share knowledge and skills is critical to ensure the country and our citizens are ready for what comes next,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sabina Weston<\/p>\n

17 May, 2021 <\/p>\n

Over 17 million people in the UK lack essential digital skills (EDS) for work, while less than a quarter (23%) of employees reported having received any digital skills training from their emplo…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42104,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42103\/revisions\/42104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}