As businesses across the UK looked to navigate through the pandemic, digital capabilities enabled them to maintain business continuity, and 58% told CWJobs that greater pressure has been placed on hiring tech talent to meet IT demand.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents increased their spend on technology hiring in 2020, while a further 67% increased their tech training budgets, both surging by almost £400,000.
However, less than one in 10 companies (9%) have trained all necessary staff in the tech tools they invested in last year, resulting in 63% looking to review their tech training strategy this year.
With benefits of tech training going beyond realising the potential of investments, almost all businesses (94%) value training throughout their careers, while 65% said that training is an important employee incentive.
Almost three in five organisations (57%) said Brexit will widen the ever present tech skills gap in the UK, due to the impact on the flow of talent coming from the EU, which provides another reminder of the importance of training.
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“Technology is only ever as effective as the employees that use it, and whilst it’s encouraging that training budgets are surging, our findings show that these budgets aren’t being spent effectively,” said Dominic Harvey, director at CWJobs.
“It is imperative that employers find creative ways to navigate the challenges of remote training and engage their workers to avoid their investments going to waste, as well as close the tech talent gap.
“A fully-trained, empowered workforce will ensure these digital investments deliver great results for years to come.”
CWJobs’ Tackling Tech Training report surveyed 1,000 tech workers and 500 IT decision makers in the UK.
