Data is core for business
Our world is data-driven, with digital transformation integral to business growth, success and survival. Despite this significant need for data and digital skills, 81% of UK bosses say that the digital skills gap is hurting their business.
Organisations rely upon data and digital skills across multiple business functions. Many employees are simply not equipped with the right skill set to keep up with digital demand. A recent report by the Learning and Work Institute found that 92% of organisations believe digital skills are key to their success, yet Accenture research shows a lack of digital skills across the UK is costing the economy £10bn every year in lost productivity. To remain competitive as an individual organisation, and as a nation, we need to do more to meet the digital demand.
Choose the data-driven approach
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report forecasts the time spent on current tasks at work by humans and machines will be equal by 2025. Digital transformation, including automation, leveraging artificial intelligence and cloud technologies, has opened up new possibilities in recent years, further accelerated by the catalyst of COVID-19.
LinkedIn currently has nearly 36,000 data scientist vacancies advertised yet government figures suggest only 10,000 new data scientists will be graduating from university each year. It is clear and evident the data skills deficit runs deep in the UK and remedying it will involve more than simply hiring newly trained graduates.
The government’s report, Quantifying the UK Data Skills Gap 2021, shows that recruiting for digital and data roles is not easy, with 46% of businesses struggling to recruit for roles requiring data skills.
Recognising the specific areas where your organisation is lacking is vital for a concerted focus on the skills you need. The ISE Student Development Report 2022 identified data handling and analysis as key areas employers found lacking in their early talent, often recruited via graduate schemes. With an apparent lack of professional data proficiency in university programmes, employers need to look to their own training programmes to deliver data literacy across their organisations.
Data skills can also not be limited to specialists and siloed in a single department, data champions and a competent level of data literacy across your company is vital for success in the coming years.
Driving employee buy-in with data
Investing in the most exciting and innovative new tools and technologies is not enough to convince your people of the need for data, and good data skills. You need a concerted focus on digital literacy and data skills development, implemented in all areas of the business and especially in new and early careers talent, allowing them to become savvy data specialists who use data confidently with impact in their roles. Your data development training can be further bolstered by a commitment to cross-training and cross-functionality across your organisation, with a focus on company-wide data literacy, not limiting your data experts to one dedicated department.
Focus on your future talent
Core data and digital skills must be embedded from the ground up to build a data-driven organisation that effectively uses data to accelerate efficiency and adopt new innovations. Early talent and rising stars must have data and digital training opportunities built into their development programmes, ensuring they can gain the essential data skills that will build their data proficiency and expertise.
With a growing need for data-savvy employees, developing strategies to solve the data disconnect in your early talent is essential. Finding solutions to give your early talent the opportunity to build their data skills is vital to ensure they are ready for the future, and your organisation is too.
Embedding data champions and specialists in all departments of your organisation ensures data knowledge does not become siloed and it can be democratised across the company. The risk of allowing all of your data to be handled, analysed and interpreted solely in your data department is a lack of understanding companywide and your highest skilled data specialists are unable to focus on more advanced and innovative tasks.
A high-impact, low-cost solution to meet digital demand is to build a data degree apprenticeship programmes into your early careers solution. The Digital & Technology Solutions Professional Degree Apprenticeship is specifically aimed at developing future digital talent who will go on to become data leaders within your organisation.
Fully funded by the apprenticeship levy, a Digital & Technology Solutions (Data Analyst) Degree Apprenticeship equips your talent with the techniques, skills and knowledge to meet digital demand and deliver impact through technology.
Our Digital & Technology Solutions Professional (Data Analyst) Degree Apprenticeship allows your digital talent to gain a specialist degree whilst building their expertise to use data effectively. Our programme also integrates in-demand business and management skills to enable your talent to operate effectively as technical experts in the business. It provides on-the-job applied learning, delivered by industry and academic experts, through a highly personalised approach.
Degree Apprenticeship programmes are suitable for those entering the workforce for the first time but also promising prospects within your workforce. With targeted data skills degree apprenticeships you can provide prospects within your organisation with the specific business-focused data and digital skills needed to drive your company, and their careers, forward.
CCL and Corndel’s Degree Apprenticeship Programme
CCL and Corndel’s Digital & Technology Solutions Professional Degree Apprenticeship programmes are designed in line with the needs of employers. The focus is filling the UK’s growing digital skills gap and developing a generation of data-literate future talent, ready to tackle the challenges in the coming years.
Our programmes meet the growing digital and data demands of the modern workplace and help your early talent build technical expertise. A degree apprenticeship programme is effective for supporting your top performers and giving them the opportunity to advance and succeed in a wide range of in-demand data roles.
Investing in professional development and learning through degree apprenticeships is a great way to upskill or reskill staff and bring in motivated, early-career talent to your business. The on-the-job nature of the training ensures employees can practically apply their new knowledge in real-time and provide immediate measurable impact. In addition, apprenticeships can help you build a more diverse workforce, by providing opportunities to people from groups that are under-represented in your industry.
By working with Corndel and CCL to upskill your workforce, you can make sure you are providing staff with the skills your business needs today, tomorrow and in years to come.
