In a bid to plug the predicted gap in the U.K. digital job market of the future, coding basics and similar programming skills are already being taught in many schools across the country. Though this is a good move, it’s not likely to meet all the industry’s needs ten or fifteen years from now.
Artificial intelligence is not something of sci-fi films, it’s fast becoming a reality. Experts estimate that, by 2020, 90% of all jobs and roles will require ‘digital skills’, even in industries that wouldn’t immediately come to mind when we think of technology – such as farming, nursing and construction. The ‘manual worker’, needing only his hands and brute strength to be top of the game in his job, will become obsolete. PriceWaterhouseCooper predicts that 30% of UK jobs will be replaced by some form of automation or AI. Technology will be entrenched in practically every job our children will face when they reach working age.
Instilling coding and programming skills in thirsty young minds today has its limitations. For example, the skills we equate with being ‘tech-savvy’ in 2017 will soon become outdated; the competencies and technological knowledge experts believe we will need in a decade or so aren’t necessarily things we recognise as crucial now.
Already, there are twice as many jobs in the field of artificial intelligence than suitable applicants to fill them. Recruiters can’t sit back and let top tech talent come to them, it’s clear that they need to go forth and find them. Maybe even encourage their clients, too, to establish in-house I.T. training; it would certainly prove a benefit for employers in the long run, as the talent pool is already shallow. Says Michael Segal, Area VP, Strategy at NETSCOUT, ‘ML and AI studies should be developed as a new engineering discipline, with industry expertise being added later. Once new graduates are hired, they should then be trained in the specific field of the hiring corporation, so they can become experts in their respective field.’
The key word in Michael’s quote is ‘engineering’. Because, one huge issue, looking into the future, is that it won’t be just coding and programming in demand. Government and educators may have identified software as a huge area of growth, but they’ve ignored the fact that hardware will still be needed.
Maintenance will prove a huge issue, simply because of the reliance the world will have on technology. Hardware support will be as important, so that systems run smoothly. There should be as many individuals with these types of skills on a recruiter’s books as front-end ‘programming’ talent. The man with his hands, who can understand components and connections, wiring and power sources…he will be able to name his price.
Think about it: cloud systems may appear to do away with hardware, but even they need huge servers and storage components to support them. There’s no point spending time and money educating people to create wonderful cloud-based technologies if there’s no one around to help when the server, storage or power goes awry. If a data centre was to malfunction, it isn’t likely to affect just one company, but hundreds.
Nick Ismail of Information Age says, ‘To secure the future of our infrastructure and data, skills investment needs to be consistent across both hardware and software. The trend of decreasing on-premise hardware may have created an attitude of out of sight, out of mind, but the reality is that focus must still be given to maintaining a skilled engineering function to manage and maintain hardware infrastructure.’
Maybe there are kids out there who’d like to be ‘the guy with the screwdriver’ when they grow up. Let’s hope, because our country will need them.
