were required at all job levels, including executive, and across all regions. Aurelie Marais, head of strategy and transformation
at Bouygues, talked candidly about construction and engineering being one of the least digitised industries and its challenges around project delivery. “The construction sector hasn’t greatly improved its
productivity for years. On top of that we have a huge shortage of talent. Of course we want to accelerate digitisation and are currently investing in this but it’s also fair to recognise that many digital transformations programmes fail. I think a big lesson from that is that we often focus on developing advanced skills – engineers or technical people, but fail to empower everyone more broadly. There is no point developing these brilliantly sophisticated models at design stage in 3D, 4D or even 10D if supervisors onsite don’t have the basic digital skills to help deliver the job,” she explained. Another challenge, noted Marais, is that technology
can often be very fragmented across organisations. A factor that plagues most sectors. Essential digital skills, while not advanced, aid people to work in more agile and productive ways and enable people to problem solve. “I spoke to an IT director and he mentioned they
are dealing with around 15 types of different software. You can train people on one particular system but I think what’s crucial is people having the basic foundational digital skills to be able to get by and work across different systems.” Some panellists emphasised the need to present individuals with motivations to upskill as well as clearer pathways to work in an age of continual reskilling. “We have a unique opportunity to design better jobs
and to prepare people for jobs of the future,” said Peter Cheese, CEO, CIPD. There’s a long road ahead but the day closed with
a packed hall of fully engaged people from industry, government and civil society proving that it is possible to break out of organisational silos and drive change. “Upskilling combines social benefit with business
benefit. Nobody loses – everyone benefits from this and that’s not often true,” added Dr Dave Smith, national technology adviser.
GLOBAL LEADERS FORUM
WATCH THE VIDEOS 63
DID YOU KNOW? 55%
of the UK’s adult labour force prefer to teach themselves skills through platforms like TikTok and YouTube.
Source: Lloyds Consumer Digital Index 2024 NUMBER CRUNCH
£145 billion £5.69 billion
Source: Future Dot Now
Inadequate digital skills in the UK’s workforce could risk losing this amount in cumulative GDP growth between 2018-2028.
The amount UK workers who lack essential digital skills are missing out on in additional wages.
GLOBAL LEADERSHIP
DIGITAL SKILLS GAP
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