{"id":10634,"date":"2021-03-27T12:28:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-27T12:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/?p=10634"},"modified":"2022-03-09T14:29:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T14:29:55","slug":"how-can-we-plug-kents-sme-digital-skills-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/2021\/03\/how-can-we-plug-kents-sme-digital-skills-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"How Can We Plug Kent\u2019s SME Digital Skills Gap?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span> report published this week from <\/span>Learning & Work Institute<\/span><\/a> highlighted that there is a worrying, and growing, UK\u2019s digital skills gap<\/span>. <\/span>Their<\/span> findings<\/span> were summarised in a <\/span>BBC\u00a0<\/span>news\u00a0<\/span>article<\/span><\/a>\u00a0which hig<\/span>h<\/span>lights the evidence of a skills shortfall in digital<\/span>\u00a0technologies<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The findings demonstrate a systemic failure<\/span> to promote and deliver IT skills within education, from schools and universities to in-business training.<\/span>\u00a0The conditions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic have <\/span>further exacerbated these needs,\u00a0<\/span>caus<\/span>ing<\/span> a step-change in the use of digital in our private and professional lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

The relationship between technology and skills is complex. With each wave of technology, concerns are raised about the existence of skills-biased technological change, resulting in increased skills obsolescence and ultimately high levels of unemployment<\/span>\u00a0until the skills become embedded at all levels of the curriculum<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pilot study<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At\u00a0<\/span>Kent Business School<\/span><\/a>, myself, Dr Catherine Robinson and Christian Siegel<\/a> <\/span>(School of Economics)<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>have recently undertaken a pilot survey of SMEs in Kent to understand their use of\u00a0<\/span>Big Data,\u00a0<\/span>AI and robotic technologies specifically<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The<\/span>\u00a0aim\u00a0<\/span>of this project, supported by the\u00a0<\/span>Office for National Statistics, is to explore the<\/span>\u00a0associated skill complementarities\u00a0<\/span>with technology\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>the shortages or gaps e<\/span>xperienced by Kent’s SMEs<\/span>. We are also looking at the <\/span>extent <\/span>to which they are investing in<\/span> training.<\/span><\/p>\n

In our pilot study finalised recently, w<\/span>e discovered that over 70 per cent of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>SMEs in the survey sample made technological improvements <\/span>and<\/span> upgrades <\/span>in the past three years. Around 50 per cent have adopted new production or distribution methods.\u00a0 Artificial Intelligence is being used directly in under 10 per cent of <\/span>those surveyed<\/span> but with a further 22 per cent looking to use it in the future.\u00a0 <\/span>Out of these, the majority reported to support employees through complementary training and education, and\u00a0<\/span>a third of all surveyed SMEs reported difficulty in attracting the right people to their jobs.\u00a0<\/span>All of our statistics\u00a0<\/span>p<\/span>oint to a skills gap<\/span>\u00a0faced by Kent\u2019s SMEs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, <\/span>the surveyed SMEs on average expect wages to increase when new technologies are introduced and th<\/span>e majority of\u00a0<\/span>surveyed<\/span> SMEs were unsure of how <\/span>AI or Robotics\u00a0<\/span>would impact their<\/span>\u00a0future management and business activities<\/span>, which perhaps indicates both an uncertainty and lack of confidence in investing and engaging with new technologies<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Business focused digital portfolio’<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Higher education providers are<\/span>\u00a0beginning to address th<\/span>e skills\u00a0<\/span>gap, with a growth in\u00a0<\/span>business focused <\/span>digital\u00a0<\/span>portfolio of\u00a0<\/span>programmes such as Digital Marketing Analytics<\/a> and Financial Technology<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While higher education will certainly help improve things,<\/span> more basic digital literacy seems to be the most necessary for<\/span>\u00a0the bulk of businesses to reap the rewards from this latest technological wave.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Improved employer-education links could facilitate this and indeed the dialogue between Universities and SMEs is likely to improve with the Help to Grow (Digital and Management) <\/a>programme<\/span>s<\/span> as well as through the Higher and Degree Apprenticeships<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both of these schemes require SMEs to directly i<\/span><\/span>nvest in skills of their staff in this way and prepare them for\u00a0 tomorrow\u2019s world.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr Catherine Robinson<\/a> is Deputy Dean of KBS and the director of Productivity and Workplace Performance<\/a> at KBS. She is an applied economist working with microdata on issues relating to productivity and performance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read more about Dr Robinson’s research on digital skills shortages.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A report published this week from Learning & Work Institute highlighted that there is a worrying, and growing, UK\u2019s digital skills gap. Their findings were … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74553,"featured_media":10741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[261688,70],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74553"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10634"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10649,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10634\/revisions\/10649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}