At the recent INNOVEIT event in Brussels, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology launched its Deep Tech Talent Initiative, which aims to provide a million people across the EU with the skills required to function in the deep tech sector in the coming years. This sector is characterized by technology that is based on tangible engineering innovation or scientific advances and discoveries.
“Fostering, attracting, and retaining deep tech talents is crucial to enable the green and digital transitions and harness a new wave of innovation in line with the New European Innovation Agenda,” said Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth at the launch.
The Digital Decade
This focus on advanced skills is not especially new. Indeed, the EU has a so-called Digital Decade initiative, which aims to “empower businesses and people in a human-centered, sustainable and more prosperous future.”
The initiative, which was launched in 2021 has ambitious goals spread across four axes, the last of which concerns the growth in digital skills. There is much within this that makes sense. After all, scarcely a day goes by when industry doesn’t bemoan the shortage of developers, cybersecurity experts, data scientists, and so on. In what Ursula von der Leyen hopes is the “European Year of Skills”, it surely makes sense to focus attention on these cutting-edge skills that will drive the competitiveness and productivity of Europe, right?
Yes and no. For while those skills are undoubtedly necessary and needed, there are also somewhat more rudimentary improvements that could be made that could have an equally substantial impact. Indeed, economic modeling from Centre for Economic and Business Research argues that improving quite basic digital skills could not only help 1.7 million people find jobs each year but also add around £45.3 billion to the UK economy.
Spreading the wealth
This is probably justified in and of itself, but the research also suggests that such upskilling would also bring many benefits to regions outside of places like London, which have traditionally hoovered up many of the benefits of the digital transformation of society. Indeed, the researchers believe that over 80% of the benefits would fall outside of the capital.
Perhaps the most important thing to note is that the digital skills the CEBR is talking about are not things like data science or cybersecurity. Instead, they break the skills down into three levels that cover what they refer to as “Essential Digital Skills (EDS)”. The three levels are foundational skills (being able to access the internet), EDS for life (being able to transact, purchase, and engage online), and EDS for work (being able to use basic business digital apps).
These skills are valuable because they enable people to tap into the digital economy, whether through utilizing telehealth or engaging in online banking. Taken together, the researchers believe that improving just the foundational skills and EDS for life can add around £14 billion to the UK economy over the next eight years.
“The single biggest lever we have to boost productivity and earning power in the UK today is how we build on the digital skills of the nation. As the data shows, a more inclusive approach to the use of technology, recruitment, and development of talent from all corners of the UK creates an opportunity for the economy as a whole,” says David Meads, Chief Executive, Cisco UK & Ireland, who commissioned the research. “We must consider how we address not only the digital skills gap, but the varying level of skills required in today’s society so that everyone can benefit from the many educational, professional, and financial opportunities a more digital society can offer.”
Broad impact
This bounty is achievable in large part because it’s not something that is confined either to the technology sector nor those sectors that are digitally advanced. Indeed, the research focuses particularly on five sectors that have traditionally lagged behind in terms of digital adoption (retail, construction, hospitality, utilities, and transportation).
Not only are these sectors digital laggards, and therefore have considerable potential for improvement, but they’re also significant employers, and therefore offer the possibility to impact a large number of people. Collectively the researchers believe supporting these sectors, and the people within them, could produce around £132 billion in productivity improvements across the UK economy by 2030, while also working significantly towards the government’s “leveling up” agenda that aims to spread economic prosperity more widely across the country.
If such gains are possible in a single country, one can only imagine the improvements possible across the EU as a whole. While that shouldn’t preclude a focus on deep tech, cybersecurity, or any of these more advanced skills, it should perhaps remind us that we shouldn’t overlook more basic digital skills either.
