Reskilling to Close the Digital Skills Gap
Skills shortages are hampering the growth prospects of companies and the wider economy and nowhere is this truer than in the technology sector. Yet the problem isn’t just confined to hi-tech firms. As Jake Schwartz, co-founder and CEO of General Assembly, puts it, “all companies are becoming tech companies.”
Countless studies have been published highlighting the digital skills gap and how it is affecting productivity and competitiveness. IT job statistics from Eurostat illustrate the problem in Europe, showing that despite an increase in the number of IT specialists in the market, half of all businesses in Europe have difficulties recruiting tech talent. Meanwhile, EY has found that 48% of companies lack the cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and robotics skills they need.
At the same time, digitally mature companies are more successful, reaping the benefits of higher productivity (76%) compared with the stragglers (65%) and lower staff turnover (59%) compared with the stragglers (74%).
At K2, we understand that identifying and hiring the best of today’s IT talent is much more than simply “headhunting and recruiting”, which is why we launched K2 University to help develop talent with the most in-demand skills.
K2 University offers a comprehensive suite of blended classroom and online curricula to train professionals and graduates in the enterprise technologies of tomorrow. K2 is uniquely positioned to offer a full service from market intelligence-based career advice through education and certification to work placement.
In two of the areas that K2 specialises in, SAP and Salesforce, we run a number of programs that provide candidates with the skills that employers are demanding and companies with the talent they need to drive their digital transformation. We have built a win-win ecosystem where everyone can reap the benefits.
For recruiters, it means an elevated conversation with clients, not just about the client’s current requirements but also about strategic planning for future workforce needs through the right mix of reskilling and hiring. The ability to help talent reskill also creates the foundations for long-term relationships between recruiters and candidates where the recruiter partners with the candidate throughout their career journey.