We need to build digital skills from grassroots up
◆ The talent pipeline in Scotland is not working as efficiently as it could be, writes Colin Frame
People are important to every business, they help us to innovate and grow, and to drive future and long-term success.
We also recognise that the talent pipeline in Scotland is not working as efficiently as it could be, and we are well short of the skills we need. This is a problem because you can only grow a business if you have the right people in place to enable this.
I share the view of many that we need to fix the problem at the very root, at the grassroots level in schools across the country, taking a bottom-up approach to how tech skills become embedded in individuals.
Along these lines, we have spent the last few years supporting the provision of digital skills to young people in partnership with Heart of Midlothian FC and its pioneering Innovation Centre, alongside other corporates like Baillie Gifford and Dell Technologies. We think it’s an important template from which others can learn, but we know we can only make so much difference, and it will take others in government and industry to really move the dial.
When we look beyond our borders, we see examples of countries who outperform us in no small part because of the ongoing investment they make into digital education. When we talk about the Future of Work, it is nations like Germany and Switzerland who are walking the talk by really investing in digital skills.
At Stellar Omada, the company I founded five years ago, we recently launched a digital education programme aimed at securing jobs for people with little or no experience in the tech sector. Following a pilot earlier this year where the seven candidates went on to gain full-time employment, Stellar Elevate commences this month with up to 12 people on a seven-week software testing course that will prepare them for a career in tech.
As one of Scotland’s fastest-growing technology companies, we have never been short of ambition and we want to have as many as 1,000 people come through this programme over the next five years. Some may see this as overly ambitious, but when you want to make transformative change you have to dream big. We are starting off with software testing because that is our bread and butter at Stellar, but we see Elevate evolving over time to cover a host of other tech disciplines. And yes, while we will want to employ some of our graduates, our initiative is also about addressing the wider digital skills gap for Scotland as a whole.
As a leader of a Scottish scaleup, we see first-hand how a shortfall in tech skills can hold back the pace of growth, and ultimately top-line economic growth in this country. We saw Codeclan fold last year, where we lost the main provider of digital skills education at a stroke, and that’s a concern when you’re trying to build a tech group that can compete on a Uk-wide level and internationally.
We want to bring other industry players into the fold as our Elevate programme progresses, and would love to speak to other tech and business leaders over the weeks and months ahead. If we can truly collaborate, perhaps we can really move that dial.