Member Article

Web chief warns of looming skills shortage

One of Lancashire’s most respected web agencies is urging the region’s developers to stay true to their roots or risk damaging efforts to rebalance the economy.

Recruiting IT talent is now one of the biggest challenges facing Preston-based Bespoke, with the web specialist finding it increasingly difficult to find skilled developers.

In an attempt to overcome the issue, Bespoke uses a number of tools to develop skills in-house including quarterly hackathons and a weekly R&D allocation. Yet as the digital economy continues to explode, the web specialist fears that the skills gap is likely to become more acute.

Steve Brennan, managing director of Bespoke said: “There is such a lack of top talent in the digital world that everybody is scrambling to recruit. The major cities, such as Manchester and Liverpool are sucking in talent from across the country, but it would be better if more of this expertise remained home-grown.

“With the digital world evolving at pace, it is crucial that Universities invest more in these specialist subjects. Much of the curriculum is now outdated meaning that many of the graduates we see lack the digital skills that our business requires.

“There’s another big opportunity to target young people in schools and colleges who aren’t necessarily succeeding academically but for whom digital can be the route to success.

“Computer science is vital to our country’s success in the global race. If we’re to produce the next Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, we need to have the very best syllabus in our classrooms.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .