The UK has £10bn skills gap, so investors must back the ‘edtech’ boom August 17, 2020 The “edtech” revolution began long before 2020. The last two decades have seen a surge in demand for skills such as coding and data science, which traditional educational institutions have, as yet, been unable to meet. A recent study by Qlik and Accenture estimates this skills gap, evidenced by the difficulty to fill positions or [...]
Death of a sales tradition: Tomorrow’s sellers can’t rely on the gift of the gab September 25, 2019 Over the course of the last decade, the art of selling has undergone a radical transformation. A key factor in this has been a shift in the buyer-seller dynamic. Buyers are changing substantially faster than sellers, with younger generations increasingly self-educating – a CSO Insights study found that 70 per cent of them now fully [...]
Public speaking – why are we so scared of talking to a crowd? July 18, 2019 Public speaking. It is the stuff of nightmares. Standing in front of your peers, colleagues and managers, words that you’ve prepped for weeks rendered to a mere whisper. It’s incredible the number of senior professionals, business owners, chief executives and managers – highly intelligent, articulate, funny and above all inspiring people – who hate the [...]
Skills gap is costing UK business £4.4bn each year July 8, 2019 The UK’s skills shortage is having a significant impact on many employers’ productivity and competitiveness. In fact, the impact on productivity is so severe that the government has put addressing the skills shortage front and centre in its industrial strategy. For most businesses, buying skills in seems the easiest way to tackle shortages, but this [...]
Just can’t get the staff these days? Brush up on data security May 31, 2019 Unemployment is at its lowest rate since the early 1970s. This is good news for those preparing to leave the nation’s schools, colleges, and universities over coming months, as they begin their climb up the career ladder. Employers, however, may view the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics with concern. There may be [...]
Tech sector activity gets a boost despite falling optimism April 30, 2019 Business activity growth in the UK technology sector has recovered to its fastest pace since the second quarter of 2018, while optimism fell to a 10-year low. The strength of business activity rose to 54.4 in the first three months of 2019, up from 52.3 at the end of last year, according to data from [...]
Tech sector activity gets a boost despite falling optimism April 30, 2019 Business activity growth in the UK technology sector has recovered to its fastest pace since the second quarter of 2018, while optimism fell to a 10-year low. The strength of business activity rose to 54.4 in the first three months of 2019, up from 52.3 at the end of last year, according to data from [...]
FTSE boards do not understand the threat of cyber attacks, government warns March 4, 2019 Boards at some of the UK’s largest companies still do not fully understand the potential impact of a cyber attack, the government has warned. A report into FTSE 350 companies published today shows that while almost all firms have a cyber security strategy in place, just 16 per cent of boards have a comprehensive understand [...]
Private sector pay set for growth as skills shortage bites February 18, 2019 Private sector pay is set to increase 2.5 per cent as skills shortages put pressure on employers. A survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the Adecco Group of pay and recruitment intentions at 1,254 employers in the first quarter of 2019 showed basic pay expectations in the private sector have increased [...]
Hacker stereotypes exacerbate UK’s cyber security skills shortage, warns NCSC February 11, 2019 Negative stereotypes about computer hackers are contributing to a skills shortage in the cyber security sector, according to industry experts. High-profile cyber specialists today warned the industry’s hackneyed reputation as a breeding ground for reclusive computer geeks is misleading and is putting promising students off a career in the profession. Read more: Huawei offers to [...]