Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

'Huge shortage' in digital skills says Apprentice winner

'Huge shortage' in digital skills says Apprentice winner

"Right now, I have 14 roles immediately available and over the last month we've had one application."

Mark Wright runs the digital marketing company Climb Online, which he launched after winning BBC TV show The Apprentice in 2014.

While digital marketing is a growing field, the entrepreneur says there simply aren't enough people available with the necessary skills.

"It's very, very worrying," he told Radio 5 Live's Wake Up to Money.

"Facebook advertising, Google advertising - some of this stuff has only been around five to 10 years and there's a huge skills shortage," says Mr Wright.

He echoes the concerns of industry experts who have warned the UK is facing a digital skills shortage "disaster".

Earlier this month, the economist and former cabinet secretary Gus O'Donnell told the BBC the UK would "get left behind" if it didn't become "highly competitive globally" in terms of these "new skills".

According to research from LinkedIn, the professional networking site, 150 million new technology jobs will be created in the next five years.

CEO of UpSkill Digital, Gori Yahaya (centre), says people shouldn't be put off learning new technologies

Yet nearly 40% of the UK's working population lack digital skills.

A report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2020 found that 61% of the active population in the UK had digital skills - compared to 69.4% in the US.

The UK government has promised a skills "revolution" to try to bridge the skills gap, by providing opportunities for adults to retrain and "upskill".

Mark Wright says he too is providing training, but it won't immediately alleviate the pressing need firms like his have for staff.

What are digital skills?


"We're actually starting an academy to train people but that's a bit of a 'slow boat' - we need people now and we can't find them anywhere," says Mr Wright.

According to a UK government report in 2019, digital skills were required in 82% of job adverts online posted in the 12 month period between April 2017 and April 2018, but the precise skills in demand were not uniform across the country.

'Digital skills' is a loose term. It could mean anything from sending emails and taking part in video calls - something many of us will have adjusted to during the pandemic - to more complex talents such as data science and coding.

But learning those more complicated skills is likely to pay off, says Jennifer Openshaw who recently changed career.

'I thought the tech world was closed to me'


History graduate Jennifer turned to coding after a career with the National Trust. And she's just landed a job as a software engineer at BAE Systems.

Jennifer Openshaw moved from a career with the National Trust to software engineering

"I started looking at digital jobs because while I was being a full-time mum to our two little boys, we moved 200-odd miles away from where we had been living, so I needed to explore new avenues and a new career.

"I had thought that the tech world was closed to me. I thought it was too late, and I didn't have a computer science degree, so there was no hope really.

"Then a friend mentioned coding boot camps. She explained to me that they were a way to learn new computer programming skills.

"There were so many more opportunities from having completed the course. You only have to do one Google search for 'software engineer' or 'software developer' to see that there are so many roles," she adds.

Katherine Rust is a science graduate, but needed additional digital skills to secure a job in data science


Katherine Rust is a science graduate but had to learn new digital skills in order to secure her current job.

"I had a job at a little convenience store. Obviously with Covid, I got stuck there a lot longer than I wanted to be," she says.

"I was applying for different science roles the entire time but it was always an issue of 'you've not got enough experience', because I'd never worked in a data role before."

Katherine went online to look for courses and started teaching herself basic Python, a computer programming language.

She is now a data analyst at Bidnamic, in Leeds, which helps retailers make the most of online sales.

For others who are similarly thinking about retraining for a new career, how do you join the dots to make sure you have the right skills, in the right place and at the right time?

"Have a think about your own skills, your strengths," says Gori Yahaya, founder and CEO of Upskill Digital, a computer skills training provider.

"Think about what might be the best areas that you want to invest in; what jobs seem attractive to you - maybe your organisation is investing in a particular tech.

"Then go online - have a look at some of the programmes and free training that exists out there."

Above all, he stresses people with long careers in other disciplines should not be put off learning new skills, many of which have only evolved in the last decade or so.

"A lot of these are new technologies. People have had to teach themselves how to do them, or companies have had to teach them."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×