When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Heres how it works.
Across Europe we need to change our mindset around closing the digital skills gap.
If we spend too much time lamenting it, we’ll fall even further behind.
The skills gap no longer exists in the way it used to, because the solutions themselves have changed.
Thats not to deny that in Europe we face a talent drain.
Trying and failing isnt automatically a bad thing as long as the same mistakes arent continually repeated.
Crucially, failure indicates learning and is a key aspect of innovation and progress.
Businesses of all sizes are increasingly faced with the challenge of finding people with the right technical skill set.
However, closing this skills gap with a fresh cohort of newly trained programmers wont solve all their problems.
They need a digital skill set in their organizations to drive actionable, meaningful insights.
Most realize they can use AI to do this - but thats often as far as they get.
And software skills themselves are changing as the tools available to us get ever more sophisticated.
Why innovation starts with IT
In IT we constantly look ahead.
Theyre just not going anywhere.
Any new, exciting technology that comes in has to fit alongside whatever existing systems underpin a businesss processes.
They allow for seamless integration without extensive coding, making it easier to update and improve legacy systems.
A technical foundation is still vital for some jobs, but not for all.
Abstraction and automation allow people to focus on what matters.
IT professionals spend so much time on complicated problems and can forget that theyre helping drive business outcomes.
They need to be given the tools to be able to focus in the right way.
The first is diversity.
A second overlooked benefit is helping solve challenges around the ageing workforce.
Many employers face a knowledge gap when long-timeemployeesretire, taking with them perhaps decades of experience and institutional knowledge.
Financial institutions, supply chain and manufacturing companies often possess old systems still generating data.
Appreciating benefits like these that extend beyond efficiency helps us leapfrog barriers to adoption more easily.
Our days spent discussing the digital skills gap are numbered.
We’ve compiled a list of the best mobile app development software.
The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc.
