Education & Training
World Youth Skills Day: Tech experts share their advice for boosting youth skills in the industry
EJ Cay, Vice President, UK and Ireland, at Genesys
Geoff Smith, CEO at Grayce
Sarah Gray, Head of HR at Exponential-e
In an industry roundtable with spokespeople from companies including Logitech, Cognizant, AND Digital, Pluralsight, Qlik, Universal Robots, Genesys and more we explore how to effectively upskill young people, provide the right opportunities and help to close the UK’s skills gap.
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rom improving the diversity of the tech industry through making STEM subjects more accessible to all, to education bodies considering what a classroom to teach tech leaders
of the future will look like – there is a lot still to do. Businesses too must look at how to better train the next generation of technology experts, equipping them with skills that will help them thrive in an increasingly digital world.
Promoting digital inclusivity and accessibility to empower young people Diversity in the tech industry has long been a challenge, especially in leadership roles. However, if young people see others that represent them in the industry, they are more likely to aspire to take up certain roles, and train to learn certain skills. For example, Sue-Ellen Wright, Managing Director Aerospace Defence and Security at Sopra Steria believes that, “young people of diverse backgrounds must be represented not only in marketing materials but in the design, development and testing processes” and that, “this issue has never been more critical than in the current world of advancing AI and Machine Learning.” Another route to promoting diversity is by improving tech
accessibility, and as Lauren McCann, Figma for Education Team Lead at Figma notes, “it is more important than ever that we empower
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a new generation of designers from every walk of life, and work to eliminate the issues of access.” Lauren adds, “Specialised degrees and expensive hardware and tools shouldn’t be a barrier to entry.”
Igniting an interest in STEM Education bodies have long been promoting the uptake of STEM subjects in schools. However, as Sean Farrington - EVP EMEA at Pluralsight points out, it is now more important than ever. “In order to keep up with the rapid pace of technological change that organisations are seeing, we must increase the focus on building a pipeline of young people with in-demand skills.” STEM skills aren’t being promoted enough in schools, with “only 15,000 UK students sitting a computing or ICT A-Level last summer”. Sean believes, “the UK must act now to boost the number of students enrolling in computing classes.” With this low uptake in schools, it’s important that other
organisations, such as Girls Who Code, help encourage young people learn digital skills and close the skills gap. Ian McShane, VP of Strategy at Arctic Wolf agrees, noting, “World Youth Skills Day should serve as a call to action to contribute to and engage with STEM focused organisations and causes to equip young people with vocational skills ready for careers in IT and cybersecurity, and to help to promote diversity.” Some, such as Jamie Lyon, Vice President of Strategy and Business
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