Interview: Closing the digital divide
21 November 2024
An interview with Liz Williams MBE, Chief Executive of FutureDotNow – an organisation addressing the digital capability gap among employees in the UK.
The digital skills gap in the UK workplace is a significant barrier to progress, preventing many employees from thriving in the digital economy. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has made these skills even more essential. We spoke to Liz Williams MBE about the current state of digital skills and how business and Government can begin to address these challenges in the age of AI.
What’s the current state of digital skills in the UK workforce?
All workers need foundational digital skills, as identified through the Essential Digital Skills Framework, developed jointly by industry and Government. The framework includes 20 tasks agreed to be essential for work and life, addressing areas like online safety, security, productivity, and collaboration.
However, the Lloyds Bank Consumer Digital Index shows that 54% of working-age adults are missing digital basics around safety, productivity, and more. Nearly 22 million working-age adults can’t complete all the digital tasks essential for today’s workforce. Moreover, nearly 2 million people in the UK cannot complete any of the essential digital tasks. This gap is significant because as AI continues to automate less-skilled jobs, workers will need to upskill to remain employable. Raising the floor means ensuring everyone has these digital foundations as a starting point.
What are the most important skills for workers to develop?
We have a “hidden middle” in the workforce. These individuals fall between highly skilled professionals and those entirely offline, and they are often overlooked in efforts to build digital capability. For instance, many initiatives to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) leverage technology have struggled because their digital skills gaps mirror those of society at large. One of the biggest skill gaps is around staying safe online. Given growing cybersecurity risks, businesses can focus on this as a starting point. But to do this, we need to raise awareness of where people are today when it comes to their digital capabilities and confidence.
That’s why we need a collective effort between businesses and the Government. We need a ‘great digital catch-up’, to raise awareness of the skills gap and take concrete steps to address it through collaboration.
How does AI fit into the digital skills debate, and how well prepared is the UK workforce for the AI revolution?
AI and digital skills are tightly interconnected. While businesses are eager to capitalise on AI’s benefits, there is a lag in ensuring workers have the core digital skills to keep up. As we’ve discussed, the issue is not AI but a broader problem. UK workers are not building the full suite of digital skills quickly enough. That’s why we must invest helping people build the digital skills needed to fully participate in the modern economy and remain employable over time.
Given this, the Government and business must prepare the UK workforce for the disruptions AI will bring. While businesses are focused on the productivity gains AI offers, not enough attention is being paid to the human impact. Jobs will be displaced, and many workers need more digital literacy to transition into new roles.
“We have a “hidden middle” in the workforce, who fall between highly skilled professionals and those entirely offline – they are often overlooked in efforts to build digital capability.”
AI is a tale of two stories: one of technological advancement and productivity and another of human displacement and lack of preparedness. We need to pay more attention to the second story. We must learn lessons from history, from the Industrial Revolution, to ensure we bring worker with us in this digital transformation.
Those leading the AI charge need to be more aware than anybody else of the digital realities of the UK. We tend to build for the digital society we aspire to be rather than where general population is today when it comes to digital capability.
Facts like:
1.9 million UK households find it difficult to afford mobile data, and 1.4 million households struggle to afford broadband. (Source: Communications Affordability Tracker)
2.1m adults are offline with essentially no digital skills. 15% of those offline are under 50. (Source: Lloyds Bank 2023 UK Consumer Digital Index)
3.7m households with children are below the Minimum Digital Living Standard. (Source: Minimum Digital Living Standard Findings Overview)
8.5m adults lack the full set of digital Foundation skills – these are the very basics, like turning on a PC, using a mouse or finding and connecting to Wi-Fi; 1.3m can’t do any tasks at this level. (Source: Lloyds Bank 2023 UK Consumer Digital Index)
4.4m adults lack the full set of Essential Digital Skills for Life– skills like being able to transact online or set up and use an email account; 1.5m adults can’t do any tasks at this level. (Source: Lloyds Bank 2023 UK Consumer Digital Index)
Those are digital realities in the UK today. And when you think about the working population and the change AI is going to bring to the world of work, it’s really important AI developers and creators are acutely aware of where people are now, so we don’t simply leave people behind.
FutureDotNow is working with the Turing Institute on how we can combine the essential digital skills UK workers need for AI with the essential digital skills they need for work and life. This is especially important with AI because the technology is going to be pushing boundaries. This is where lifelong learning comes in. But such lifelong training needs to be short and accessible.
How do we tackle the digital skills gap in the UK Workforce?
At FutureDotNow, we’re encouraging businesses to sign up for the Workforce Digital Skills Charter, a collective effort to supercharge workforce development. The charter focuses on three key areas:
Raising awareness of the skills gap
Driving national change through coordinated efforts, and
Empowering people to build digital foundations.
More than 70 organisations are working on our delivery plan in a series of sprints. So, we’re bringing businesses together to help provide a solution.
We’re advocating for a “national digital catch-up,” encouraging the Government to start with three low-cost steps:
Set a national ambition we can all share to equip everyone with essential digital skills
Clearly define the national minimum digital skill set for workers based on the Essential Digital Skills Framework, and
Provide incentives, such as the skills and growth levy, to encourage investment in digital upskilling, to empower and galvanise business action.
How can AI developers, creators or deployers get involved?
They are such an important community. Everyone who is leading the AI charge needs to understand the digital realities of the UK, where many households and individuals still struggle to meet basic digital standards. So, I’d encourage them to pay as much attention to preventing workforce displacement as they do to reaping productivity gains from AI. And how AI might be able to close the digital divide in the UK; that would be an exciting prospect!
AI and digital skills are ultimately crucial for economic growth and social mobility. But, without coordinated action, many jobs could disappear, leaving people without the skills needed to secure new opportunities.
Through collaboration between businesses and the Government, and focusing on inclusive digital upskilling, the UK can bridge the digital skills gap and ensure a future where everyone can participate in the digital economy.
For more information on how to get involved, visit https://futuredotnow.uk/charter/.
James Boyd-Wallis is co-founder of Appraise
