work quickly to bring digital signposting together, so people know where to go for information. In the companies I talk to the big problem has been ‘where do we start?’ Now is the time to run a digital transformation campaign.


KH: What we’re trying to do with the Digital Skills Partnership is to be that first port of call to enable us to signpost. I would hope that we could build the partnership into that and part of it would be signposting to the universities.


YR: Universities play a massive part in terms of support for SMEs and the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes they offer.


It’s quite difficult to write a curriculum for skills that are required in three, five years’ time.


However, we might have a sense now, given this crisis, of what might be required. We need to work closer with employers and businesses but we now have an insight into the future, because the future’s been brought to us now.


ML: My children are adapting really quickly to remote learning and they’ve responded well. Using digital tools is going to become second nature as they grow up, it will be a natural progression.


ME: A lot of the skills gap is generational. People already using Facebook, apps on phones and things like that have moved into solutions very easily. Our workload is coming from a different generation who have to re- train themselves.


KH: Our research highlights that there’s a generation gap and that there tends to be a lack of confidence in adapting and using digital skills


PRESENT: Richard Slater


Lancashire Business View (chair)


Deyrick Allen IOT Horizon


Zoe Dyson Intequal


Mark Edwards Seriun


Kerry Harrison Lancashire Digital Skills Partnership (LDSP)


Simon Iredale Motionlab Ann Jordan


Lancashire Enterprise Partnership/Benetimo


Michael Lough Blue Wren


Alan O’Donohoe EXA Foundation


Yvonne Rennison-Stone UCLan


Tom Stables Digital Lancashire/3ManFactory


Adrian Wright UCLan


because I’m so used to working in certain ways when I am out of the house. I’m having to reconsider; do I have the skill? You need to adapt.


SI: We’ve had people working from home since I started the business in 2004 so we’ve always had a work from home mentality.


The only reason we actually have an office is we enjoy the community aspect; we actually enjoy being there with each other.


If anything, the work we’ve been doing since everyone became home-based has increased because everybody’s incredibly focused and not getting distracted.


That is why I’m a massive advocate of home working. It’s something everybody should be doing. The logic that we’re polluting the skies by


that.’ We have to work on busting some myths about digital.


We’ve got to help everybody in the wider community understand that digital roles can be for them because in the future they’re going to be for everybody. You won’t be able to get away from it.


TS: The challenge we have is some people don’t regard what they do as being digital when it clearly is.


At Digital Lancashire we have the Women in Tech group, which isn’t exclusively for women, but is really to push the agenda that digital and technology is for everyone. It’s giving people the environment to feel more comfortable to learn about that.


LANCASHIREBUSINESSVIEW.CO.UK


We see a lot of our technology and digital workforce aspiring to


work in the city. They use Lancashire as their stepping stone


There’s a


generation gap and that there tends to be a lack of confidence in adapting and using digital skills the older you are


the older you are. Lancashire’s digital workforce is also ageing and that’s a problem.


AO: Some people are trying to replace what they normally do and just do it online. However, working online is very different. You can’t just simply think, ‘We’ll just do it in Zoom and it’ll work fine.’


I run lots of face-to-face events. I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be straightforward, we’ll just do it online’. I’m actually finding it a real tussle


jumping in the car and driving 30 miles to go to work, to work on a computer, to drive 30 miles back again, is nonsensical.


ZD: We’ve always worked virtually, so we’ve been able to continue delivering our skills solutions around apprenticeships. It is very much business as usual for us. I do think more organisations are going to have to make this shift change. It works.


AW: As we go through the isolation process, loneliness at work will become more apparent. Keeping in touch regularly with the people you are working with, keeping up social relations and making sure you keep in contact with your employees is important.


YR: Strong leadership is required. Businesses are adapting very quickly to people working at home but some leaders may be finding this a difficult time. Getting support for leaders in all sectors is fundamental.


Having structure is also important. It is good leadership to say, ‘We all need to have a structure, we all need to connect with each other’.


Figures show we are not attracting as many young people and women into the digital sector in Lancashire. How do we make it more inclusive?


KH: A Tech Nation survey of young people a few years ago included comments from young women saying, ‘People like me don’t do jobs like


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