Trailblazer devolution deals can accelerate digital skills push
The Invest North project was established to bring together the voice of Northern businesses and direct it so that the opportunities and the needs could be better understood both within and beyond the region.
It was led by TheBusinessDesk.com and supported by Lloyds Bank, Northern Powerhouse Partnership, Phoenix Group, and Squire Patton Boggs.
From the outset the intention was to focus on Northern leaders and voices who knew the opportunities and challenges from unlocking investment best of all, and around 150 organisations contributed to the discussions which helped shape the report’s recommendations.
The Invest North report sets out 12 policy recommendations, which focus on four prime capabilities of sectors that will drive prosperity – energy and net zero, manufacturing and materials, digital and culture, and health innovation – alongside cross-cutting proposals.
The North’s third Prime Capability, Digital and Technology, is rooted in our early history in computing and evident across clusters of excellence that embrace high performance computing, cognitive computation, data analytics, simulation/modelling, and machine learning.
Hosting our North of Tyne roundtable at FTSE 100-listed Sage, its Chief of Staff Jon Cowan set out how the company views “digitisation as the key driver of business growth in support of SMEs” and its work to ensure small businesses can continue to invest in productivity enhancing technology.
Firms across this Prime capability employ some 250,000 people, many at world-leading projects, with more than 37,000 digital economy businesses turning over £16 billion every year according to the Convention of the North.
World Class Infrastructure and Support
In his region, Mayor Andy Burnham told Invest North: “I just say to people that Greater Manchester is the fastest growing digital and tech hub in Europe and immediately you’ve got people’s attention. It’s digital and tech in all of its forms: fintech, cyber, AI, creative digital. People are interested in that success story.”
On the Mersey, Mayor Steve Rotheram shared that its digital conductivity will soon be the fastest in the UK and how this creates the capacity for big data analytics with the world’s 30th fastest supercomputer located at The Hartree Centre for High Performance Computing at Daresbury. Determined to attract entrepreneurs, he is is determined to use the region’s lead to drive tech growth to sit alongside companies invested in Net Zero and Advanced Manufacturing industries: “that’s the big thing with digital connectivity at ultra fast speeds that sets us apart from the rest of the country … Why can’t somebody in one of our great universities be the next Google or Microsoft?”
Tim Newns
The roundtables were reminded how funding is integral to success. Looking to potential in quantum computing, Tim Newns of the Office of Investment said: “There are a number of companies globally looking at quantum at the moment, a number of them looking at the UK and interested but not having quite worked out yet what the funding proposition is. So we’ve got to push to make sure that the infrastructure investment is going in … so that propositions that are here can absolutely thrive.”
The North is also home to an ecosystem of organisations helping companies to make sense of the new access to big data. Paul Watson, Director of the National Innovation Centre for Data shared the problem-solving potential of his team of data scientists in Newcastle-upon-Tyne: “lots of companies and public sector organisations are drowning in data and they can see that must be some potential to use it to transform what they do to improve the productivity to launch new products and services, but they don’t have the skills within their organisation to achieve that”.
Skills Shortages – harming the North’s opportunity
The challenge clearly set out by Invest North participants was about skills to keep up with the demands of the sector. The Convention of the North’s report found that “the North and the wider UK has a deficit in the number of people with adequate digital skills, resulting in a large number of hard-to-fill jobs in sectors that could make a meaningful contribution to economic growth.”
TFN’s NPIER refresh in March cited the 2021 DCMS report, UK Quantifying the Data Skills Gap, that found “between 178,000 – 234,000 data-related roles in UK companies to be filled, but graduate supply is likely to be limited to around 10,000 per year, and about half of all relevant workers report no data skills training in the past year”.
Invest North’s roundtables reported the same. Mark Roberts, former chair at Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership said “we still do have a skills, shortage, especially in certain tech enabled and digital sectors”.
Challenges for SME are acute especially as staff are looking to progress. Rik Barker, COO of X Design told our West Yorkshire meeting that “one of the challenges that I think anyone in a fast growing digital business will face at the moment is impatience in people’s progress.” He went on to share good practice about how the company empowers staff whilst ensuring talent is working at the right level with investment in middle management, increasing technical skills and significant focus on mentoring and coaching.
Sara Prowse
A consistent approach was vital as the demand to fill the data skills gap methods meant current processes are under the microscope. Reputable providers are certainly in demand across the Northern education system, with Sara Prowse, chief executive, UA92 explaining how the disruptor university was offering digital apprenticeships and bootcamps as there is “an absolute race against time to provide people with the skills required in the digital space.”
However, Katie Gallagher, managing director of Manchester Digital issued a friendly word of caution to contributors about initiatives elsewhere: “we have to be really careful with some of the skills programmes that are out there.”
Therefore, we recommend co-ordinating business efforts to train and recruit talent across the North with devolved skills systems empowered through Metro Mayor trailblazer deals, drawing on a more flexibly governed apprentice levy.
Meeting vibrant Northern industries’ demand for skilled human capital and ensuring an inclusive pool of talent drawn from across the North’s full diversity requires collaboration between combined authorities and business. There is the potential to learn from models already developed and applied by leading employers such as TalkTalk and GCHQ regionally.
Improving skills will ensure that fast growing businesses and inward investors can utilise collective infrastructure and invest in training with confidence, rather than each business needing to replicate what they may need from scratch or being disincentivised by poaching.
