South: Digital skills necessary for better earnings, job prospects

Want to get ahead at work and earn more money? Get digital. That’s the conclusion of Barclays Digital Development Index 2017 which analysed 88,000 UK job adverts and assessed the digital skills and confidence of 6,000 adults.

The advert analysis shows that employers will pay a premium of up to £10,000 a year for digital skills including programming and software design, meaning workers could generate £100k of additional earnings in just 10 years. Earnings boosts of £3,000 a year are also up for grabs for those with graphic design, data and 3D modelling skills.

This could make all the difference to someone saving for a house deposit, feeling the financial squeeze of caring for relatives, covering tuition fees or saving for retirement.

Building digital capabilities and confidence could also help the UK plug a major skills gap. The Barclays Index finds that 63% of UK jobs require digital skills such as word-processing, database spreadsheet or social media management skills, but only 57% of the workforce have these capabilities. If not addressed, this mismatch will worsen as digital skills become even more vital to businesses.

And although they have up to 30 years left in their working lives, it seems Generation X (35-54 year olds) are being left behind. Those aged 35-44 are 11% less likely than their millennial colleagues to say they are very confident about their digital skills. Generation X workers are also more worried about their ability to keep their skills up-to-date (23% have confidence in their ability to do so, versus 28% for millennials).

Education also boosts digital skills and therefore respondent scores; Masters Graduates score 36% higher than those who leave school without any qualifications. And those in management positions score far better in the tests than those in junior positions, and 20% above the UK average.

National and regional differences

Digital skills and the demand for them vary across the UK. London and Northern Ireland are the regions where digital skills are the most in demand (66% and 70% of job ads ask for ‘above basic’ digital skills as a minimum requirement), they are also the two regions with the most digitally skilled workers.

Londoners scored 6% above the national average in a test of their ability and confidence to perform a range of digital tasks such as using apps and devices to plan journeys or make payments, creating websites and sharing data on social platforms. Outside of the capital, people in Northern Ireland, the North West and Scotland have the best digital capabilities.

However, skills gaps in the South East, East, South West of England and Wales are acute. Demand for digital skills and the salary premiums they command are among the highest in the country, but digital skills in these regions lag behind the rest of the UK. 

Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays UK, said: “People’s level of digital prowess is fast becoming a key determinant of their earning power, yet the UK today is a patchwork of digital skills. Where you live, how old you are, what you do and your education level have an impact on your digital abilities and confidence.

“Digital skills can provide a vital boost to household finances and everyone deserves the opportunity to benefit from this. At a time when wage growth is so important to families in the UK, we must act fast to improve our home-grown digital skills if the UK is to stay at the forefront of the global digital economy post-Brexit.”