Executive Summary and Contents
Planned reskilling programmes that focus on clear outcomes to fill gaps in IT&T skills now and for the future must be a key element of every organisation’s talent strategy.
Even as UK businesses maintain buoyant hiring intentions, and revenue in the IT Services market projected to reach £72.3bn in 2024, global competition for highly-skilled talent is squeezing the IT&T sector, leaving them struggling to secure the skills they urgently need – an issue further compounded by stiff competition for skilled talent from other UK industries and a myriad of recruitment problems unique to the IT&T sector, (such as the extended time to hire, and the need for businesses to demonstrate a strong and engaging culture).
Unfortunately for IT&T businesses, these hiring issues are not going away anytime soon. Research from Gartner indicates that the UK’s talent shortages in IT&T will remain until at least 2026. With hiring alone no longer providing a viable solution to the acute talent shortage, IT&T business leaders will have no choice but to develop and reskill the valuable workers they already have. However, poor planning, low programme investment, weak trainee interest, and high student drop-out rates also mean IT&T organisations can often see little ROI on internal training programmes.
Exacerbating these issues are other agitating factors, with many IT&T employers failing to appreciate that 94% of the UK workforce will require new skill sets by 2030, having poor oversight of the current and transferable skills within their organisation, and being unable to discern which type of training programmes they require and how to effectively deploy them to achieve the skills they need. All of these problems must be set against the truths that 75% of completed reskilling and upskilling programmes are economically positive and they typically deliver productivity increases of up to 12% per worker.
Training to build and enhance an organisation’s workforce from within can pay off. But it takes a well-planned approach to get there. IT&T organisations must have full sight of the outcomes they wish to achieve before they can implement the training solutions that successfully provide the skills they need to meet their current and long-term strategies.
The UK’s skills shortage will cost UK businesses £120 billion by 2030.
Source: Learning & Work Institute.
Executive summary
IT and tech business leaders need market intelligence in a hypercompetitive labour market
The ultimate guide to reskilling
How to build your optimal IT and tech workforce
A combination of problems are exacerbating the skills shortage in IT&T
The UK’s IT&T sector is being squeezed in a worldwide hunt for talent: Competition for IT&T talent is not local or national, it’s global
The global race for digital talent: Charts that reveal intense global competition for skilled IT employees
Not just a talent shortage, also a basic digital skills shortage: 1/3rd of the UK ‘digitally literate’ workforce cannot even perform one digital skill
Reskilling programmes need sharp planning, strong experience and a delivered outcome
The outcome gap
Internal skills development programmes often fail to deliver
Future skills needs critically important in IT&T
IT&T organisations must develop skills to respond to the rapid pace of innovation
Turning a problem into an outcome-based solution
Understanding and assessment
Reskilling can motivate and invigorate prime employees
Align outcomes to the organisation’s ESG and provide employee support
Careful consideration of outcomes is essential
Planning is key to success
Step 1: Skills and capabilities audit
Step 2: Assess your skills gaps
Step 3: The benefits of build vs. buy
Steps 4 and 5: Establish the benchmarks
Step 6: Select your training programme
Step 7: Measure, manage, optimise, scale
Putting theory into practice – reskilling case studies
Capgemini: Building a team of new business analysts
Babcock International: Finding diamonds in the rough
QinetiQ: A blended approach
More client testimonials: Hear what other ManpowerGroup clients have to say
The Talent Solutions approach – a results driven philosophy
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