7 Must-Knows About the Cloud Skills Gap
The cloud skills gap is here to stay, unless we do something about it fast. Here are 7 surprising (and not-so-surprising) statistics about the cloud skills gap from Microsoft.
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Only six percent of organizations believe they can meet their needs without adding cloud skills.
The cloud skills shortage in the U.K. has increased for five consecutive years, Microsoft says.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents say having the right cloud skills is critical to their digital transformation, and over 80 percent say it is either important or critical.
More on digital transformation here: Zero One: Digital Transformation Is Big
Cloud skills are considered highly desirable or essential for new recruits by 35 percent of organizations.
Seventy-eight percent expect it will be easier or about as difficult two years from now to recruit staff with necessary cloud skills.
Technical IT staff is 20 percent female and 80 percent male, and 35 percent of respondents have no plan or policy to address gender imbalance and a further 23 percent do not know what actions are in place to address it.
Wondering how to address the gender imbalance in your organization? Check this out: 7 Ways to Fight the Gender Gap within Your Business
Some organizations are looking within their existing talent pool to address the cloud skills gap. Sixty percent are retraining staff, while 53 percent are using the skills of external partners, and others are recruiting new staff, according to Microsoft.
Some organizations are looking within their existing talent pool to address the cloud skills gap. Sixty percent are retraining staff, while 53 percent are using the skills of external partners, and others are recruiting new staff, according to Microsoft.
Despite the fact that the cloud skills gap in the U.K. has increased for the fifth consecutive year, only 14 percent of organizations in the U.K. believe it will be more difficult to recruit employees with cloud skills two years from now, according to a new report released by Microsoft this week.
Interestingly, among those respondents attempting to recruit employees with cloud skills in the past 12 months, 38 percent reported difficulty finding the right skills among applicants.
Click through the slideshow for standout statistics from the Microsoft report, which you can download in full here.
While this report focuses on the recruiting experience in the U.K., here in the U.S. there are similar concerns that the technical skills gap continues to widen, and that policy changes could widen this gap even further.
What are you doing to address the skills gap in your own organization? Have you taken any drastic measures? Let us know in the comments.
With notes from Chris Burt, The WHIR
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