The Disturbing Skills Crisis In Tech - And How To Tackle It

At the SXSWedu national education conference in Texas, a panel of business and education leaders discussed worrying findings in a recent study of the skills gap in technology.

Among the findings of the Career Advisory Board were that just 11% of organizations believe that colleges and universities are providing graduates with skills to fill the tech needs of their businesses and institutions.

The study also found that 57 of respondents said that interviewees for tech roles lack the skills necessary for the job.

One of those taking part on the panel was Randi Zuckerberg, CEO of Zuckerberg media, author, former director at Facebook, and sister of that company’s co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Following the panel she took the time to talk to me about what she felt were the most pressing issues raised by the report – and how the tech industry can make a start at tackling them.

“For me,” she tells me, “the most interesting thing was the fact that tech skills are broken up into hard tech skills and applied tech skills.

“It’s definitely something that I’m seeing in a lot of my work – when we think of tech skills we immediately think of programming and coding and engineering, but in pretty much any job you want to have, even if you’re running a small business – a floral shop – or if you’re an actor or if you’re in marketing, you need to have tech skills.”

This distinction between applied and hard tech skills is certainly an important one, and could, the panel agreed, be key to what employer’s need to do on their part to overcome the skills gap issue.

In both enterprise and the public sector there’s evidently a growing need for those with the skills to analyze a business or procedural problem and solve it by application of technology. This lack of application is already costing organizations dearly in missed opportunities for efficiency.

“It’s something everybody needs to have, and I think the study really shows that we need to focus and deep dive into those areas – there are hundreds of thousands of jobs out there that require tech skills that aren’t just coding.”

In terms of what fields or industries might be particularly at risk of skills gap issues, Randi says “All of the above! Our entire economy is susceptible if we don’t close this gap – right now tech.org estimates that there are over 500,000 computing jobs not being filled, and that number could easily rise to over a million if we don’t do something about it. 

“Those jobs are in Government, the private sector, non-profits – basically every part of our economy and society, and especially diversity in those fields, is at risk if we don’t try to address this now.”

Of course, what might seem like a crisis for an industry should, and I am sure will, be looked on as a golden opportunity by jobseekers and those hoping for a career in, or involving, technology. I asked Randi what advice she would give to a college or school leaver planning their entry into the field.

“Firstly I would say great job – you made a great choice going after a career in tech and you’ve probably given yourself a lot of job stability and are going into an exciting career.

“But make sure you never get too comfortable or complacent – because in tech the landscape is changing every two to five years and the skills you have now are not necessarily going to be useful in five years. Make sure you’re always learning, keeping up on your skills and just because you’re graduating with a computer science degree, don’t think those skills are going to last you 50 years in the workforce.”

And as for employers – who have an equally large part to play in closing the skills gap - they should focus on fostering a corporate culture which encourages continuing education and development of technical skills.

“So many employers say they value training but don’t actually create a culture where employees feel they can take the time to get that training. It can easily get to the point where employers find themselves with tens of thousands of employees whose skills are suddenly outdated, and all of a sudden they need to go through mass re-training of thousands of people.

“There are great opportunities to get ahead of this now, by training workforces from within – taking great people they already have and upskilling them. At the same time they will make their companies exciting and tech-savvy, forward places to work and that’s going to attract hot new talent, too.”

I would say that creating this sort of culture where self-improvement and ongoing education are valued, or even expected, is one of the most solid steps a business or organization can take today towards overcoming the skills gap. With the democratization of data and the drive to push analytics and technology into every nook and cranny of today’s companies, who can say where innovation is most likely to emerge from? By empowering workers and staff at every level to apply technology and drive change, organizations of any size or function are likely to find they have the skills in place when and where they are needed. 

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

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