There is a continuous demand for high-skilled workers in different fields worldwide. We have reached the age wherein we are now facing a skill crisis here and abroad. In the UK, for instance, the demand for skilled workers in various sectors reached a sky-high. Many industries now lack talented individuals to sustain business needs. Such a problem will only continue to grow unless we can face the gap early on.
Nowadays, it becomes increasingly difficult to find candidates with the right skills needed to fill tech positions. This includes cloud engineering, artificial intelligence, DevOps Specialists, and Site Reliability Engineers. Failure to fill the open positions can lead to delays and future business problems sooner or later.
Numerous companies indeed offer outsourcing services that enable other businesses to fulfill their business needs. This includes crane industrial companies that offer animation and AutoCAD drawings to their clients. But then, we must keep on producing highly-skilled individuals to take on unfilled positions, or else numerous industries will greatly suffer.
We have a growing dependency on technology. To make sure every industry gets to keep up with the latest innovations needs to fulfill tasks in a faster, efficient, and safe way, it only becomes a must to find the right candidates that already have these critical tech skills. Failure to do so can lead to the downfall of many industries in the future.
Reasons for the Skill Shortage in Numerous Industries
There can be many reasons why numerous tech industries now lack the manpower to sustain their operations. The causes can be diverse. Some common causes are as follows.
- Lack of specialist knowledge
- Unreliable recruitment processes
- Uncertain long-term demand
- Prevailing wage rates in the market
- Under-investment when it comes to skill unemployment
The Role of Higher Education in Address Skill Shortages
The education sector plays a huge role in dealing with skill shortages. It becomes a must that we pay attention to all the learners instead of simply focusing on those pursuing academic courses. The more we encourage and empower learners to pursue high-skilled jobs, the easier it will be to address the growing skill shortage worldwide.
In the UK and Europe, one major component of their education policy is widening access and higher education participation. But then, many challenges stop the optimization of the project. Not all students are given much emphasis, with most learners on academic pathways given better access to education.
Widening access and participation encourages diversity, inclusion, and equality in higher education. This aims to motivate learners from lower socioeconomic groups, disabled learners, or even mature learners to further their education. But then, learners with financial difficulties still can’t afford the necessary fees needed to take further education.
The good news is, Higher Education Institutions can now seek government support to help finance the higher education of poor students. But even with the government’s support, many educational institutions fail to retain enough students. Some can’t offer enough pedagogical support necessary to entice learners to finish their education.
Many universities indeed have their own widening participation strategies. But then, rarely do they account for vocational studies. Only a small amount of learners would pursue Further Education colleges.
Another reason why universities often overlook widening access is due to the low chance of re-entering education. Once a student fails the age-determined General Certificate of Secondary Education, many can no longer have access to further their education. If we don’t do something about the age restrictions in higher education, then older learners won’t have the opportunity to have a second chance at re-entering education when they need and wanted to.
We ought to give learners the ability to access Further education. This way, we will have more graduates with the necessary skills to fill in the tech skill shortage. More highly-skilled individuals can fill in different positions that lack human resources.
We should start giving all learners equal opportunities to chase after their dream careers. This means that even if one can’t pass a certain subject to access Further education, they should still be given a chance to take the exam once they are ready. If we keep on restrict learners just because they failed one time, then we really won’t be able to fill skill shortages.
There can be many reasons why we now lack highly-skilled individuals in many industries. One way we address this is by enticing more learners to take higher education. Tearing down the barriers that stop learners from taking and finishing their courses should be our number one priority. Unless we decide to help more people gain the necessary knowledge and skills to take on highly-skilled roles, the skill shortage will continue to impact numerous industries worldwide.
