The Effect of COVID-19 on Digital Upskilling in the UK
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant effect on digital upskilling in the UK. This has led to a dramatic increase in the number of people who are looking to improve their skills in this area.
Many people have been forced to learn new skills via CPD certification training to work from home, and companies have had to find new ways to train their employees remotely.
This is because many people are now working from home and need to find ways to stay productive and maintain a competitive advantage over prospective job candidates so that they can add these new skills and certification training knowledge to their CV to help them obtain future jobs.
The Current State of Digital Upskilling in the UK
In the UK, digital upskilling is becoming increasingly important. As technology advances, the skills required for many jobs are changing. This has led to a growing demand for people with digital skills.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there has been a significant rise in digitalisation across firms in the UK. Despite this increased digitisation, there is still a large digital talent deficit among businesses in the UK.
According to a recent study, 69% of UK CEOs believe their firm has a digital skills gap at the moment, and 70% anticipate one in the next year.
More than half of UK executives (44%) believe that their company’s present lack of digital capabilities will have a significant detrimental impact on its success in the coming year.
Despite these worries, UK business executives are well aware of the need and are working hard to upskill their staff.
According to LinkedIn statistics, 32 % of C-level CEOs from major UK firms plan to upskill their staff in the following six months.
Employees are also interested in learning; after COVID-19, 59% of employees felt that improving their digital skills would be beneficial for their employment prospects.
The main barriers to digital competence investment are cost and a lack of planning. When it comes to upskilling, both UK business executives and employees believe they will have to take matters into their own hands.
Business executives are doubtful about the educational system and the government’s ability to bridge the digital skills gap in the UK. Only 28% of UK CEOs think schools do a good job providing enough digital training for students.
Only 24% of respondents think the UK government is doing enough to close the digital skills gap in their country.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Digital Upskilling in the UK
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on digital upskilling in the UK. As businesses have become more digitised, the need for employees with digital skills has increased.
Some of the impact of COVID-19 on digital upskilling in the UK includes:
Job Security
With the global pandemic, many people are fearful of losing their jobs. To increase their chances of being employed in the future, workers are keen to upskill and learn new digital skills.
According to a report from PwC, many people are worried that automation is putting many jobs at risk. To prevent this, workers are feeling the need to upskill and learn digital skills.
As companies accelerate their automation plans and many jobs continue to be remote, employees across every sector will need to acquire new skills that enable them to think and work in different ways. 49% of respondents had concerns that many jobs were at risk due to automation, comparted to 60% globally.
All in all, people want job security and they believe that by learning new digital skills they will be able to keep their jobs for longer.
High Demand for Digital Skills
COVID-19 has also created a high demand for certain digital skills. In the past, there have been a lot of jobs in the UK that did not require digital skills. However, because of COVID-19 many of these roles are now changing and requiring new digital abilities.
Skills such as data analytics, cybersecurity, and project management are becoming increasingly important. Those who have these skills will be more likely to find employment in the future.
Where access exists, workers are keen to reskill as needed, with 77% of workers surveyed by PwC willing to learn new skills or completely re-train.
High Demand for Remote Work
With so many people now working from home, the demand for digital skills that allow remote work is high. To meet this demand, online courses and other forms of training are increasing in popularity.
Only a very small percentage of individuals who discover they can work remotely want to go back to full-time employment. With that in mind, most firms are attempting to maintain at least some virtual or flextime. 9% of respondents from the PwC CEO survey declared that they wanted a traditional commute and work environment full-time, which is the same as the global average.
More than half of respondents anticipate remote work to become a permanent part of their employment strategy. As a result, they’ll require various forms of physical space.
Final Thoughts
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on digital upskilling in the UK. The number of people who are seeking to learn new skills has increased dramatically, as has the demand for online courses.
This presents an excellent opportunity for businesses and individuals alike to invest in their own digital education. With so many people looking to improve their skills, now is the perfect time to get ahead of the competition by investing in your own training.
