“Digital inclusion means ensuring all people have basic digital skills and access to technology and the internet now, while expanding opportunity for gainful employment through more advanced digital skills attainment now and in the future.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
To achieve this vision, we must start:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Investing in the next generation of tech talent now, and not just with coding education<\/li>\n
- Finding and training non-tech workers wherever they are now<\/li>\n
- Transforming our industry\u2019s culture and image so different kinds of people can see themselves in it<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Investing in the next generation of tech talent now<\/h3>\n
Already many of us in the industry, are working with schools, colleges and other organisations to supplement curricula with various STEM learning initiatives.\u00a0 But, as a society, we need to go further and think more broadly.\u00a0 Coding clubs are hot right now, and have contributed to changing perceptions of our industry for the better.\u00a0 However, we have fallen behind in investments in core education: a large proportion of schools report that their teachers do not feel prepared to teach using digital tools, and even computer science tutors aren\u2019t confident when it comes to teaching coding.\u00a0 Furthermore, connectivity is still a problem.\u00a0 As of 2014, two-thirds of primary schools and half of secondary schools said they didn\u2019t have adequate WiFi provision.<\/p>\n
We also need to continue to reposition STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) subjects, ensuring they are part of core curriculum throughout schooling, not spinning off computer science modules as elective subjects.\u00a0 The level of technology education today\u2019s students will need tomorrow is much greater than it ever has been, and so related subjects should be treated as sacred as English and Maths are.<\/p>\n
I would argue the same is true for arts education\u2026or at least creative education.\u00a0 The STEM acronym is emerging in a revised version: STEAM (A for Arts), and for good reason.\u00a0 As computers evolve to become more self-sufficient (i.e. more programming being undertaken by computers themselves), some coding careers will become obsolete.\u00a0 The more advanced jobs in this space will be for not just the cleverest programmers, but the most creative minds among them.\u00a0\u00a0 (Recall the Albert Einstein quote \u201cImagination is more important than knowledge\u2026\u201d for a reminder that creativity has always been a part of brilliance in science).\u00a0 But creativity and imagination won\u2019t just be important for the techies of the future: the promise of many of the technologies on the horizon is that we will all be able to use them for better outcomes of all kinds.\u00a0 We are told doctors shouldn\u2019t fear being replaced by robots, because they will have their work enhanced by AI and big data.\u00a0 The same goes for lawyers, scientists, social workers, and so many other kinds of workers.\u00a0 We will become (even more) augmented humans, and augmented humans will only reach their potential if they know what questions to ask their computers.\u00a0 That takes imagination and creativity.\u00a0 Likewise, these skills will continue to play an outsized role in dreaming up how technology can be applied to solve current and emerging challenges, be it business challenges that lead to the creation of the next Uber, or societal challenges like solving plastic waste.<\/p>\n
Finding and training non-tech workers wherever they are<\/h3>\n
There is still too much reliance on people finding their way to us in tech.\u00a0 That is, people who benefitted from the education system and recruitment pipeline that is still plagued by unconscious bias, and an industry culture that, although cooler than it used to be, is still not welcoming to all potential talented people.\u00a0 We can\u2019t afford to wait for those who are in school now to join us, so we must transform our talent search and employment offer.\u00a0 There is much to be done \u2013 and, to be fair, a lot being done, including offering more flexible working and setting objectives for diversity in recruitment and performance management \u2013 but I see two main hurdles not getting enough attention: reliance on traditional talent pipelines (including elite universities), and stubborn insistence on non-essential skills.<\/p>\n
Elite universities produce many talented people, to be sure, and they should be in the recruitment mix.\u00a0 But they shouldn\u2019t be the only avenue, or even the most significant one.\u00a0 First of all, we will never get enough candidates if we only target students coming out of top universities.\u00a0 Second, these univiersities won\u2019t help fix our diversity issues.\u00a0 People from ethnic minority backgrounds and of lower socio-economic status are severely underrpresented here.\u00a0 This in itself will perpetuate the lack of racial and socio-economic diversity in our sector, if we rely on these universities for our candidates too heavily.\u00a0 But the problem goes deeper: the pervasive homogeneity within these institutions could mean that organisations that rely on them too heavily for talent will not only have diversity problems as described above, but they will also have a lack of diversity of thought and experience.<\/p>\n
Drawing up a job description for a recruitment advertisement is not fun, and if you can reuse one you\u2019ve already got, you\u2019re probably going to do that.\u00a0 The problem is, the one you\u2019ve got is probably a wish list instead of a job description.\u00a0 It\u2019s much easier to just list everything you can think of that your ideal candidate might be able to, than to take the time to seriously challenge yourself to identify and prioritise a few skills and qualifications that you absolutely cannot do without.\u00a0 (The old quote \u201cI\u2019m sorry I wrote such a long letter, I didn\u2019t have time to make it shorter\u201d springs to mind).\u00a0 But we absolutely must start to do this.\u00a0 For one, we know that women are likely to rule themselves out for a position if they feel they don\u2019t meet 100% of the criteria, whereas men will tend to apply for the role if they feel they meet a third of them.\u00a0 Going beyond gender, I believe we could also find untapped talent pools if we took up the practice of examining our real needs and priorities, and considering training and reskilling options.\u00a0\u00a0 Could a construction worker become a project manager?\u00a0 Could an artist become a UX designer?\u00a0 Could a stay-at-home mum who worked in tech 10 years ago jump into a sales role?\u00a0 The answer is maybe, but not if we weigh down our adverts for roles with too many non-core criteria.<\/p>\n
Being imaginative about where we\u2019re going to find talent now and in the short-term is also crucial to preparing for any displacement that emerges from greater automation.\u00a0 We will have to be better at seeing skills and competences that are transferrable, and spotting potential for non-technical people to become more technical.\u00a0 And we have to commit to real retraining programmes.\u00a0 Done right, retraining should be a better option than letting people go and trying to find talent in this tight market.<\/p>\n
Transforming our industry\u2019s culture and image<\/h3>\n
Despite progress, our industry\u2019s culture and image continue to be barriers to addressing the skills gap.\u00a0 If people don\u2019t want to come to work in the industry because they don\u2019t see others like themselves, or because some actors are contributing to a bad reputation, we will struggle to get the people we need.\u00a0 The transformation will take place in our workplaces and in our work with schools and colleges, with new recruitment and talent management practices and culture change initiatives, and school outreach with a focus on diversity.\u00a0 Again, though, we must think more creatively about the kinds of skills we want the future workforce to have.\u00a0 We can\u2019t train the kids of today for jobs that will be obsolete by they time they enter the jobs market; we have to help them develop problem solving skills, creativity, critical thinking skills.\u00a0 If we do this, it will have a knock-on effect on our culture and image, because we won\u2019t just be bringing in the old school geeky types from the same backgrounds.<\/p>\n
Finally, we can do more to inspire the people we want to attract.\u00a0 Technology is playing a huge role in addressing some of the world\u2019s greatest challenges, such as climate change, social isolation, and access to healthcare.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen firsthand in our work with schools and colleges how talking about technology as a force for social and environmental good captures imaginations and gets kids\u2019 interest.\u00a0 People of all ages want to make a positive difference in their work, and ensuring we offer those opportunities to our workers now and in the future is the right thing to do and a good way of attracting people.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot of work.\u00a0 Is it worth it?<\/h3>\n
The benefits to us in business should be clear enough: we can solve our skills shortage over time and address our diversity issues, and improving diversity brings with it its own business benefits. But this is also important on a people level: almost all jobs will require tech skills of a level higher than is required today, and the best jobs will continue to be in tech (yes, I\u2019m biased). Enabling more people to work effectively in the most rewarding jobs could help to turn around the trend towards growing economic disparity in developed countries, and will foster stronger, fairer economic growth.\u00a0 It will also make those of us in the industry better at what we do: right now we are at risk of creating flawed products because we don\u2019t have enough people from different backgrounds contributing to their creation.<\/p>\n
So, yes, the challenge of becoming truly digitally inclusive in the terms described above is a big one.\u00a0 But we don\u2019t really have a choice if our industry is going to continue to be the engine of economic growth and innovation that it has been.\u00a0 Let\u2019s get to work, and more importantly, let\u2019s get others to work with us who aren\u2019t yet!<\/p>\n
\nThis article was originally published here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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