Where will you get your digital skills from in 2013?

A report released earlier in the year by O2 claimed that the untapped digital skills of the young unemployed were valued at £6.7billion by UK businesses.

This represents both a massive waste of skills and an untapped opportunity for businesses crying out for better digital presence to give them competitive edge in an increasingly digital – and global – market.

The research analysed the value of unused digital skills sitting within the community of one million unemployed young people in the UK. It highlighted that many businesses desperately need the digital skills that can be found in abundance amonst the generation who grew up with the internet – including web design, coding and social media expertise.

The study found that over the next three years businesses expect a fifth (21 per cent) of their growth to come through digital channels. When asked, “Which skills would most help your business grow and develop?”, digital skills were ranked equal with new business development and customer acquisition abilities.

The study made clear that businesses need to better exploit the opportunity represented by the digital skills sitting unused in the youth community. While more than three-quarters (77 per cent) of businesses agreed that young people possess strong digital skills fewer than a quarter (24 per cent) were intending to offer a first time job or an ‘on the job’ training role to a young person in the coming months.

This research highlights a huge opportunity for organisations to rethink their hiring and personnel development strategies and bring onboard some of the latest digital skills into their businesses – and potentially at a lower cost than hiring MBAs or fighting for the limited pool of skilled digital resources in the business market.

The research highlighted the digital skills young people say they possess:

• Nine out of ten (90%) can use social media to promote an event, idea or cause

• Two-thirds of young people (66 per cent) can design a webpage

• One in five (19 per cent) can develop an app

• 13 per cent are “confident” at coding, whilst another 25% have experienced coding at some point

• 36% are confident in working with databases

With businesses saying they consider only 35 per cent of their current employees to be digitally savvy, almost half (49 per cent) say they don’t plan to spend anything on up-skilling their current workforce in digital.

This must represent a fantastic opportunity to hire in new talent, harness the enthusiasm and raw skills of young people and gain a competitive edge over less innovative organisations.

Source: news.o2.co.uk/?press-release=young-peoples-digital-skills-valued-at-6-7billion-by-uk-businesses

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