DIGITAL SKILLS DEBATE


IN ASSOCIATION WITH:


Kerry Harrison


Richard Slater


Mark Edwards


Adrian Wright


Yvonne Rennison-Stone


Michael Lough


Alan O’Donohoe


Zoe Dyson


Tom Stables


Ann Jordan


Simon Iredale


Deyrick Allen


DEVELOPING A NEW DIGITAL FUTURE


Digital skills have become vital as businesses look to meet the challenges of the coronavirus crisis. So it was fitting that developing an inclusive digital future was the focus of our first ever online roundtable, held in conjunction with the Lancashire Digital Skills Partnership and UCLan’s Lancashire School of Business and Enterprise


How has coronavirus impacted our current skill needs and working practices?


KH: This is a pivot point for the country. We’ve never really had the push or need to use a lot of the digital skills and tools we have. Now we are being forced into a situation where we must use them.


We need to get used to people working remotely and to embrace those skills through online learning, webinars and through interaction on platforms such as Zoom.


When we come out of the other side of this, we need to keep the momentum going. The workforce is already on a steep learning curve and that is going to continue.


ME: Half of our customer base was ready and prepped for this and had embraced the digital change. They were already using technologies for flexible working. The other half rang up and said, ‘I now need to work from home’.


The situation has highlighted very clearly the digital skills gap that exists in certain people. The ones embracing it are already talking about what’s going to happen afterwards and how they can continue to progress.


but we have to respond and adapt to a new way of developing relationships and networks to enable our businesses to grow.


The workforce is


already on a steep learning curve and that is going to continue


AW: Digital businesses, like many others, are dependent on networks and establishing relationships and how do those relationships exist without physical contact? It’s done online


TS: We’ve been forced into realising the value of digital. When it comes to digital skills, we have to remember for a lot of people these are new skills that haven’t been around for long. When it comes to the workforce and digital skills, one of the challenges is that employers don’t really know what they need. They don’t know what questions to ask or what to look for.


DA: It is about communication. You’ve got a lot of people working from home who can’t physically see their factory, who can’t see if it’s being productive, they can’t see how it’s running. We spend a lot of time educating manufacturers on how they connect to these digital assets – not just people but also their physical assets.


AJ: Digital transformation is a huge growth opportunity for the sector. Somebody needs to


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