Over two-thirds of IT decision makers in the UK view a shortage of IT skills as one of the main threats to their business. That worrying statistic came to light in recent research by digital infrastructure company Equinix. However, much has been written about the skills gap in the tech sector long before this.

It’s clear we have a huge problem – and it is one that doesn’t seem to be improving. The Scottish Government has recognised this and recently awarded a £42m contract to Codebase to set up seven new tech scaler hubs across Scotland.

This investment should help make our country a nurturing home for tech entrepreneurs – but I believe we also need to act earlier to attract our youngest minds to a career in tech.

It’s not enough to just grumble about the broadening skills gap. Companies must step up, put their money where their mouth is and boost their support for young people. The alternative could be devastating.

Due to our rural location, finding employees with specific skills can be a challenge, so we have always needed to develop talent from the ground up.

We have recently enhanced that approach through a partnership with our neighbouring secondary school, Dalbeattie High.

Our engineering manager – who started with us as an apprentice 12 years ago after leaving Dalbeattie High and has worked his way up – has been visiting the school to deliver interactive sessions to S3 pupils, teaching them about the skills involved and the possible pathways into various IT careers.

The pupils have been able to hear from someone who has taken a slightly different route into a successful career.

Through this programme, we can clearly see that many young people are interested in a tech career. It is now up to our sector to nurture those ambitions and convert them into reality.

Companies should ask themselves if they are doing enough to raise awareness of their need for tech talent, and whether they are emphasising the considerable financial benefits to young people.

For example, according to a 2021 report by TechNation, the average tech salary is up to 50% higher than the average for all vacancies in the UK and is still increasing.

The other huge problem, of course, is the sector’s failure to attract more female talent – according to TechNation, just 26% of the UK tech workforce are women.

We can see that reflected in our own workforce, where we have women in our sales, HR and customer service teams but few in technical roles.

That’s due not to our recruitment choices but simply to a lack of female applicants. School-age girls are much less likely to focus on computing science than boys.

A recent PwC study also shows that just 3% of women say a career in technology is their first choice. We must do better as a sector if we are to see it thrive in the future.

This isn’t just about diversity though; the skills gap is stifling business growth too. If you take most of the female population out of the pool of potential talent available to the industry, it’s hardly surprising there’s a skills drought.

How do we tackle this? One of the things we need to address is the sector’s image problem.

Many school pupils think of tech as something that’s boring or geeky, or that you need to be very academic – or at least, good at maths – to be successful in tech. That simply isn’t true.

Then there are studies which show that the way boys and girls approach subjects they like, and their level of confidence, differs from an early age.

There may also be a view amongst parents that tech isn’t as prestigious a career choice as, say, law or medicine.

A lack of computing teachers meaning that the subject isn’t always being taught in schools across the country isn’t helping either.

Businesses might not be able to directly solve the problem of teacher recruitment, but they can help educate young people that there’s a wide variety of careers available in tech.

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We can let them know that we need creative, innovative minds that can come up with new ideas.

We need marketers, HR people, sales gurus, finance experts; the paths into the sector are many and varied.

So I’m calling on my peers to think about action rather than words. Get out there, talk to young people and tell them about all the great things the tech sector has to offer. Offer support, work experience or mentorship. Be a role model.

Building a diverse talent pipeline, let alone plugging the skills gap is certainly a challenge, but one that we must rise to as a sector.

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