Text: Digital skills crisis report

Prior to the Digital strategy being launched by government (Ref,year), the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee (2016) put together a report to examine digital skills and how these are being experienced in the workplace, schools and in higher education. They make it clear that the evidence shows that the UK faces a digital skills crisis and based on that make some key recommendations. They explain, there are skills gaps presenting themselves at all stages in the education and training pipeline, from schools to the workplace (p.?).

They put forward that it is vital for the Government to coordinate a coherent strategy to address the digital skills crisis at all stages in the education and training pipeline. The report later refers to the digital inclusion strategy (2014) which set out a two-year time frame to reduce the number of people digitally excluded by 25%. The Strategy identified several actions that government, private, public and voluntary sector stakeholders need to take to reduce digital exclusion, the most relevant actions to this research were to; make digital inclusion part of wider government policy, programmes and digital services; Establish a quality cross-government digital capability programme and Agree a common definition of digital skills and capabilities. However this was mainly around access to technology rather than the accessibility of digital content in our society. The report highlighted that this was still an area of concern, it stated that ‘Digital exclusion has no place in 21st Century Britain. While the Government is to be commended for the actions taken so far to tackle aspects of the digital skills crisis, stubborn digital exclusion and systemic problems with digital education and training need to be addressed as a matter of urgency in the Government’s forthcoming Digital Strategy (p.?). 

In literature around the same time, specific to digital accessibility education and skills, there is a consensus of similar concerns (Ref, Ref, Ref). 

Almost a decade later this sentiment is still echoed specifically when referring to the need for digital accessibility education and awareness. The skills gap is still evident in recent reports across industry, education and the disability community (Hassell, 2022; Valuable 500, Access etc). It’s also clear that the professional industry specific to web accessibility can’t meet demand due to a skills gap (Ref) and that even the most basic of awareness has not yet made its way into the mainstream (ref), even when the most simple principles or basics of digital accessibility can help to address many barriers when it comes to digital content in our society (Ref).

The most recent government strategies still do not refer specifically to digital accessibility skills development (), they only make reference to access and inclusion in terms of the digital divide of those who don’t have technology or the skills to use it. Or access to assistive technologies. There appears to be no mention of the need for content to be accessible for assistive technologies to work, or that the content itself can be a significant barrier too (Ref).

There maybe a reason for this.

#Responsibility of web teams verses shared endeavour,#…

The shared responsibility of being inclusive in terms of our digital world, has not yet caught up with the shared responsibility in terms of the equality act, discrimination or human rights (Name, 2010; name, year etc), with many studies alluding to people believing the responsibility for digital content belongs with web developers (Ref). This is possibly due to the legal framework in this area being specific to websites and apps development for public bodies such as government, local authorities and education (regs Refs). However, the digital world in which we live is far broader than just websites and apps created by public bodies (Ref) and therefore only a fraction of the digital accessibility of content is being addressed in terms of compliance. Yet in society we’re are both consumers and creators of everyday content in the workplace and our social world (Ref) this means we all have a responsibility and contribute to the wider digital world in which we now live and why education in this area is so important (Refs).

NOTES:

ALSO ADD IN stats from PEAT and new report coming in May https://wcet.wiche.edu/frontiers/2023/04/27/its-time-to-teach-accessibly-and-teach-accessibility/

 https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmsctech/270/270.pdf

House of Commons

Science and Technology Committee

Digital skills crisis Second Report of Session 2016–17

Extracts:

The evidence is clear that the UK faces a digital skills crisis. Although comparative nations are facing similar challenges, only urgent action from industry, schools and universities and from the Government can prevent this skills crisis from damaging our productivity and economic competitiveness. The Government deserves credit for a range of effective interventions launched over the last Parliament but only the computing curriculum and widespread take-up of digital apprenticeships offer game- changing potential, and their impact may not be evident for a generation. Given the scale of the digital skills crisis we face as a nation, it is time for further action. The Government’s imminent Digital Strategy needs to go further than drawing together cross-government digital activity, it needs to offer genuine leadership and vision for the future of digital skills and our digital economy.

Digital skills are becoming increasingly essential for getting access to a range of products and services. 

The skills gap presents itself at all stages in the education and training pipeline, from schools to the workplace. 

There has been a gradual shift to digital technology in schools. To help meet the future demands of a digital economy, the Government launched the computing curriculum in September 2014, which introduced ‘computer science’ at GCSE level, and discontinued ‘ICT’. The new computing curriculum is world leading and, properly taught, has the capacity to transform the digital skills potential of the next generation. The ICT curriculum did not provide the skills that industry and higher education value. Despite support for the transition, many ICT teachers still do not have the qualifications or the knowledge to teach the computing curriculum. Given the pace of technological advances, it will always be a challenge for schools to keep up with the latest innovations. As digital skills are increasingly becoming essential for many industrial sectors, schools will have to invest in offering high quality computer science options and upskilling teachers to deliver them. The Government should request Ofsted to include the computing curriculum in their inspections and require schools to deliver credible, sustainable plans for embedding computing. Schools should look for innovative ways to boost capacity through coding clubs and other informal learning opportunities offered by industry leaders.

To ensure digital education in schools continues to keep pace with business needs, the Government should work with the Tech Partnership to establish a regular forum for employers to raise and discuss their priorities for ensuring the computing curriculum and its teaching stay up to date, and to help ensure that other school subject qualifications provide a foundation for a broader range of digital careers. The ICT streams of the Teach First and Master Teachers initiatives should be scaled up to help deliver the number of teachers needed for the long term health of UK digital education.

Ministers accept that it is vital that Government coordinates a coherent strategy to address the digital skills crisis at all stages in the education and training pipeline.

When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented his distributed ‘information management system’ at CERN in 1989, no one anticipated the transformative impact of the digital revolution. In almost every aspect of our lives, we use digital products and services.

If as a nation we want to secure our position as a digital world leader, we need to ensure that investment in infrastructure, skills and cyber-security keeps up not only with the exponential growth of the sector but also with its restless innovation and creativity. Digital skills have no single definition, but have been variously described to include a general ability to use existing computers and digital devices to access digital services, “digital authoring skills” such as coding and software engineering, and the ability to critically evaluate media and to make informed choices about content and information—“to navigate knowingly through the negative and positive elements of online activity and make informed choices about the content and services they use”.2 These skills are no longer sector specific. The rise of the Internet of Things, Big Data and robotics means that 65% of children entering primary school today will be working in roles that do not yet exist.3 This means that our education and training system—whether teaching the next generation or continuously upskilling the existing workforce—will need to be more agile if it is going to meet the challenge of future-proofing the workplace.

Basic digital skills are also a powerful social enabler, opening up opportunities for improvements in education, better health care services, connecting people to their communities more effectively and helping adults find work. Furthermore by increasing employment and giving small businesses the confidence to do more business online, digital skills can help boost the UK economy.

The Government published a Digital Inclusion Strategy in 2014, setting out a two-year time frame to reduce the number of people digitally excluded by 25%. It identified four barriers: a lack of access to the internet, missing skills to be able to use the internet, a lack of motivation, and a lack of trust.11 The Strategy identified actions that government, private, public and voluntary sector stakeholders need to take to reduce digital exclusion:

• make digital inclusion part of wider government policy, programmes and digital services;

• Establish a quality cross-government digital capability programme;

• Give all civil servants the digital capabilities to use and improve government services;

• Agree a common definition of digital skills and capabilities;

• Boost Go ON UK’s [a digital skills charity] partnership programme across the country;

• Improve and extend partnership working;

• Bring digital capability support into one place;

• Deliver a digital inclusion programme to support [Small and Medium Enterprises] and [Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises] using data to measure performance and improve what we do. (P.8)

The Government’s initiatives do not amount to a strategy. In February 2015, the Lords Select Committee on Digital Skills published a report calling for action in six areas, as follows:

• The economy—millions of jobs are at risk of automation;

• Skills—the UK population needs to learn the right skills for the future;

• Schools—make digital literacy a core subject;

• Internet—view the internet as important as a utility;

• Inclusion—realise the benefits of universal digital access;

• Women—realise the economic potential of more women in digital careers.

PAGE 11 Bold text:

Digital exclusion has no place in 21st Century Britain. While the Government is to be commended for the actions taken so far to tackle aspects of the digital skills crisis, stubborn digital exclusion and systemic problems with digital education and training need to be addressed as a matter of urgency in the Government’s forthcoming Digital Strategy. In this report, we address the key areas which we believe the Digital Strategy must deliver to achieve the step change necessary to halt the digital skills crisis and bring an end to digital exclusion once and for all.

….

20. There are already, however worryingly digital skills gaps in industry. The economic impact of this skills crisis is already clear. Research by O2 showed that the UK would need 745,000 additional workers with digital skills to meet rising demand from employers over the period 2013–2017.45 Failure to fill these vacancies would cost the country between £1.6 billion and £2.4 billion a year.46 TechUK told us that “93% of tech companies surveyed believe that the digital skills gap affects their commercial operations and talent acquisition.”47 Approximately 50% of employers have digital skills gaps which include specialist, technical roles.48 Go ON UK calculated that:

85% of hard-to-fill positions are difficult to recruit because of the lack of specialist, technical skills. These could have a wide range of impacts, restricting economic growth and productivity, unable to develop new areas of business, putting an increased pressure on existing employees to deliver more. 

Digital skills in schools Embedding digital technology in the school curriculum

59. Addressing the digital skills crisis starts with our education system. The Royal Society identified the central importance of education as the engine of a more digitally skilled workforce:

If the workforce is to be future-proofed, education systems in the UK must be designed to equip everyone with strong literacy and numeracy skills, information literacy and a mind-set that is flexible, creative and adaptive. This will be crucial to preparing today’s young learners for a future economy in which the skills needed are not only unpredictable now, but will continue to change throughout their careers; a future in which workers must have the ability and confidence to continue to learn and adapt long after leaving formal education.113

Crucially, witnesses impressed upon us that students who were only exposed to digital education in designated ICT classes suffered a distinct disadvantage when compared to those whose schools chose to mainstream technology and digital skills across the curriculum.

The computing curriculum

63. Since the Education Reform Act 1988, ICT has been compulsory for all pupils aged 5–16 years in maintained schools.120 In 2013, Ofsted reported on the quality of ICT teaching in schools in England, concluding that it was stronger in primary schools than secondary schools, where “poor teacher capability and lack of resources accounted for significant weaknesses in delivering the ICT curriculum”.121 It was left to schools’ discretion how ICT was taught and Ofsted noted that overall more emphasis was given to office applications (e.g. Microsoft applications) than design elements (such as programming). This was dependent on individual teachers’ confidence and ability to deliver the subject content. A Royal Society report in 2012 stated that many pupils found ICT “repetitive and boring”, resulting in a steady decline in the number of students studying the subject since 2007.122

64. In February 2013, the Department for Education launched a public consultation on the Government’s proposal to replace the national curriculum ‘ICT’ syllabus with ‘computing’ at all four Key Stages.123 The changes were proposed because of what the Government described as “the negative connotations and poor value associated with ICT, as well as making the subject a more rigorous academic discipline”.124 The consultation proposed not to offer both ICT and computing courses because there was an overlap in their subject contents. Responses to the consultation showed that 39% were in favour of replacing ICT, while 26% were against and 26% were unsure.125 The Department for Education decided not to approve two GCSEs and A-levels that would offer similar qualifications and decided not to redevelop ICT at GCSE and A-level.126 The Government told us that “the reformed computing curriculum is equipping young people with the computational thinking that will prepare them for continued study or employment in digital roles”.127

65. The new computing curriculum was launched in September 2014, focusing on the basics of how computers work, digital literacy and information technology.128 The curriculum was designed by industry experts and academia. Computing is now a statutory national curriculum subject at all four Key Stages (alongside english, mathematics, science and physical education). ‘Computer science’ GCSE is also now included in the English Baccalaureate as a ‘science’. ICT is still available to 14–16 year olds, but only at vocational level.

(P.26) Google, Microsoft, BBC and many other witnesses welcomed the new computing curriculum, seeing this as a “world leading” step in equipping children and young people with fundamental skills for the UK’s digital economy. However, it is a significant step up in what teachers are being asked to teach and, therefore, implementing the curriculum continues to be a challenge for some schools due to lack of qualified teachers (as we discuss below) and IT resources. The Government and industry recognised these issues early, however, and a lot of work has been done to develop the new curriculum. This includes a range of resources and support for schools and teachers and coding clubs (paragraph 77). Schools and industry could also look to whole school programmes with which they are already familiar, like the Big Writing literacy initiative, as a possible model for mainstreaming digital skills.129

67. Every student must have access to education that enables them to participate in the growing digital economy. The Government deserves credit for its leadership in introducing the computing curriculum but there is still some way to go for it to become truly embedded in all schools, let alone delivered to a consistently high standard. Given that digital skills are of the highest priority to the future of the UK economy and the future chances of young people, we find it surprising that computing is not explicitly considered in Ofsted’s schools inspection framework. We recommend that the Government request Ofsted to include the computing curriculum in their inspections and require schools to deliver credible, sustainable plans for embedding computing.

Every student must have access to education that enables them to participate in the growing digital economy. The Government deserves credit for its leadership in introducing the computing curriculum but there is still some way to go for it to become truly embedded in all schools, let alone delivered to a consistently high standard. Given that digital skills are of the highest priority to the future of the UK economy and the future chances of young people, we find it surprising that computing is not explicitly considered in Ofsted’s schools inspection framework. We recommend that the Government request Ofsted to include the computing curriculum in their inspections and require schools to deliver credible, sustainable plans for embedding computing.

TEACHERS Upskilling 

Given the pace of technological advances, it will always be a challenge for schools to keep up with the latest innovations. As digital skills are increasingly becoming essential for industrial sectors, schools will need to invest in offering high quality computer science courses and upskilling teachers so that digital skills can become more mainstream rather than as a standalone subject. The Government seems to treat computer science as a separate subject rather than a mechanism to enhance learning across other subject disciplines. ICT teachers are now expected to teach the new computing curriculum, but too many do not have the qualifications or the confidence to teach computer science. The Government and industry deserve credit for efforts so far to embed the computing curriculum, including in the provision of free resources and training. However, it is clear that greater investment is necessary to address the teaching skills gap. We therefore recommend that the Government increase its investment in teacher training as a long term commitment and request that, as part of its monitoring of the delivery of the computing curriculum, Ofsted take into account the uptake of free resources and training.

75. The Digital skills crisis includes not only shortages of key digital skills in the economy but also a shortage of qualified, confident ICT teachers. We commend Teach First and the Master Teachers initiative but, given the rate of loss to a highly attractive private sector, we believe that the ICT streams of these programmes should be scaled up to have any hope of delivering the sheer number of teachers needed for the long term health of UK digital education.

76. So far financial incentives have not attracted sufficient computer science teachers to the profession. In its forthcoming Digital Strategy, the Government should review the case for financial incentives for recruiting and retaining computer science teachers in schools, mindful of the higher pay remuneration available in the private sector. As an interim solution to recruitment shortfalls, the Government should consider categorising computer science teachers as one of the ‘shortage occupations’, thereby making it easier for schools or local authorities to recruit from outside the EU.

#In a school setting, individual teachers’ pedagogies can also have a significant impact on a pupil’s level of attainment as well as stimulating interest in digital technology (p.30).

#The gap between the digital skills that children and young people take into their working lives and the skills actually needed by the digital economy demonstrate that the problem is more than simply demand outstripping supply. 

It indicates that the UK’s approach to developing digital skills—although on the right track with a reformed school curriculum for computing, digital degree apprenticeships, and the Tech Partnership coordinating industry response—is still suffering the effects of long term historic weaknesses.

102. The forthcoming Digital Strategy therefore needs to be more than just a catalogue of initiatives. It needs also to be more than just a programme of work for Government departments. We need to change the UK’s cultural perception of digital technology. By setting out a vision for the future, to be delivered by collaborative work between industry, educators and Government, the Strategy should be more than “aspirational”—a Strategy that actually delivers.

103. The Digital Strategy should be published without further delay. It should include benchmarks and defined outcomes that are necessary to measure levels of success and decide on next steps. There should be goals for developing better basic digital skills, for increasing the number and diversity of students studying computer science, for increasing digital apprenticeships and for fostering digital champions, a plan for greater awareness of business-led initiatives, and a framework through which the private sector could more readily play a collaborative role with communities and local authorities in initiatives to raise digital skills in local SMEs.

CONCLUSIONS

Digital exclusion has no place in 21st Century Britain. While the Government is to be commended for the actions taken so far to tackle aspects of the digital skills crisis, stubborn digital exclusion and systemic problems with digital education and training need to be addressed as a matter of urgency in the Government’s forthcoming Digital Strategy. In this report, we address the key areas which we believe the Digital Strategy must deliver to achieve the step change necessary to halt the digital skills crisis and bring an end to digital exclusion once and for all.

13. The Government should emphasise the need for more digital skills components in all apprenticeships, not just ‘digital apprenticeships’, to gear them to the needs for jobs across the economy. The Government should make digital skills the focus of its 3 million apprenticeship target. (Can link the conversation here to the ATOS apprenticeship and the CDDA role of accessibility specialist).

Every student must have access to education that enables them to participate in the growing digital economy. The Government deserves credit for its leadership in introducing the computing curriculum but there is still some way to go for it to become truly embedded in all schools, let alone delivered to a consistently high standard. Given that digital skills are of the highest priority to the future of the UK economy and the future chances of young people, we find it surprising that computing is not explicitly considered in Ofsted’s schools inspection framework.We recommend that the Government request Ofsted to include the computing curriculum in their inspections and require schools to deliver credible, sustainable plans for embedding computing. 

Given the pace of technological advances, it will always be a challenge for schools to keep up with the latest innovations. As digital skills are increasingly becoming essential for industrial sectors, schools will need to invest in offering high quality computer science courses and upskilling teachers so that digital skills can become more mainstream rather than as a standalone subject.

The Digital skills crisis includes not only shortages of key digital skills in the economy but also a shortage of qualified, confident ICT teachers. (RELATE TO WHY TEACHERS AND LEARNERS IN RESEARCH TO DEVELOP CURRICULUM AND IDEAS).

We recommend that the Government works with the Tech Partnership to raise the ambition for, and coverage of, industry-led digital training, and to make it easier for businesses of all sizes to get involved. (Basics and mainstream- argument of complexity association#).

#Employers can also actively engage with schools, acting as role models and mentors. Interest in computer science (and STEM) needs to be captured at primary school level, then maintained until key career defining choices are made in selecting subjects at GCSE and A’ level. (Paragraph 90) - THATS WHY KEY STAGE 2.

A strategy for digital skills

28. We found that the digital skills crisis was present in all stages of the education and training pipeline. The publication of the Digital Strategy, and formulation of a coherent cross-Government policy, is thus long overdue. We cannot understand why the Government has put off publishing the Digital Strategy—15 months after the Lords Digital Skills Committee’s call for a ‘digital agenda’—even though it has apparently been written for some months.  

The gap between the digital skills that children and young people take into their working lives and the skills actually needed by the digital economy demonstrate that the problem is more than simply demand outstripping supply. It indicates that the UK’s approach to developing digital skills—although on the right track with a reformed school curriculum for computing, digital degree apprenticeships, and the Tech Partnership coordinating industry response—is still suffering the effects of long term historic weaknesses. (Paragraph 101)

31. The forthcoming Digital Strategy therefore needs to be more than just a catalogue of initiatives. It needs also to be more than just a programme of work for Government departments. We need to change the UK’s cultural perception of digital technology. By setting out a vision for the future, to be delivered by collaborative work between industry, educators and Government, the Strategy should be more than “aspirational”—a Strategy that actually delivers. (Paragraph 102).