A further 1 in 4 businesses said they’d had to outsource work outside of the EU as they couldn’t find the talent to fulfil it in the UK, with a quarter of businesses saying they’d turned down up to £50,000 worth of new business over the past year due to this lack of resource.
Manchester Digital’s skills audit of digital businesses in the North also found that men are still dominating the majority of technical roles in the industry - with seven males for every three females now filling these positions. In addition, almost 1 in 5 businesses surveyed said their workforce was 100% male.
Developer was the hardest role to fill for the third year in a row. These roles were even more difficult for businesses to recruit for this year, with 65% citing they’d struggled to find developers, up from 50% last year. Almost half of businesses (44%) said they’d had to inflate salaries to compete, which although down from the previous year, still poses a problem.
Promisingly though, 84% of companies surveyed reported growth over the past 12 months, up 4% from the previous year. The survey also revealed the growing use of apprentices in the sector, with almost half of Northern digital businesses having taken on apprentices in the past three years. However, out of the businesses that were unable to hire an apprentice, 1 in 4 said it was because they didn’t have the capacity to manage one.
Katie Gallagher, managing director at Manchester Digital, said: “The results of our digital skills audit revealed a number of issues we continue to face year on year – and unsurprisingly, many of those shortcomings are related to talent, or lack of. While not as many businesses turned down work due to lack of talent last year, 37% still did – a figure that can’t be ignored. The digital industry is booming, but now it’s absolutely critical that we develop and nurture the next generation of talent, in order to support the sheer amount of work our businesses are having to cope with.”
The results of the audit were revealed at the Digital Skills Festival, taking place in Manchester this week (9-12 February 2016), which attempts to combat the skills shortage in the region. The four-day event will introduce students to some of the region’s biggest employers including The LAD Bible, Autotrader, RentalCars, The Coop, Onthebeach.com and Misguided, as well as bringing business, key influencers and academics together to discuss how to drive the industry forward.
Katie continued: “With the digital skills gap still apparent, events like our skills festival are absolutely crucial to ensuring emerging talent in the region is introduced to those businesses that are crying out for talent. It’s now the responsibility of businesses, education providers, and policy makers alike, to join up the dots and ensure we’re doing everything we can to help the industry thrive as it should.
“As is the case every year, the conversations we have at the skills festival, teamed with the findings of our skills audit, influence the agenda and shape the work we do over the coming year. Our top priority has always been getting the right results for our members, so responding to their feedback accordingly and applying our expertise to shape policy and drive change is something we’ll continue to prioritise.”
