Workforce Digital Skills Summit: Event summary and key takeaways

On 25 April 2024, FutureDotNow gathered almost 150 business, public sector and civil society leaders for the Workforce Digital Skills Summit at the Guildhall, London.

Conversation at the Summit focused on the nature and scale of the workforce digital skills gap, the opportunity tackling it offers, how it is impacting different groups, and ideas for practical action. It was a truly insiring and energising morning – thank you to everyone who was able to join us. 

You can now read a detailed summary of the event, including the top five takeaways (previewed below).

Download the event summary and key takeaways

If you were there on the day and would like to see the event photos, you can view those here.

Finally, if the summit and this summary has sparked your interest and would like a conversation about working with FutureDotNow, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch at hello@futuredotnow.uk.

The top five takeaways from the Worforce Digital Skills Summit:

    1. The workforce Essential Digital Skills gap is real and hidden in plain sight. With almost 22 million (54%) working age adults unable to complete all digital tasks essential for work, it affects most of the working population, and shows up in every sector and demographic. The UK is not yet a fully digital nation; people need training to build, and keep building strong digital foundations, so they can keep pace with tech.
    2. Bridging this skills gap is not just a challenge, it’s a massive opportunity. The true potential of digital technology cannot be unlocked without a digitally capable and confident workforce. Equipping everyone, from CEOs to volunteers, with core digital skills would boost productivity, safeguard against cyber threats, and secure the workforce for our digital future.
    3. There is no specific data on the relationship between Essential Digital Skills in the workforce and critical productivity and prosperity metrics. If you don’t measure it, you can’t see it, if you can’t see it, you can’t act on it. It is imperative to break this vicious cycle and urgently close this data dap. Currently there is no funding to do this.
    4. Working together, we can supercharge Essential Digital Skills across the workforce at scale and pace. There is a 10-point plan for national action and FutureDotNow is convening organisations to share best practise, collaborate, and deliver system-level change. The Workforce Digital Skills Charter is a shared statement of ambition. All organisations are invited to join the community of charter signatories and FutureDotNow members determined to build the future-fit digitally confident workforce the UK needs.
    5. Employers are uniquely placed to take tangible action today. There are many proven ways to help working age adults build Essential Digital Skills. Whether to deliver large scale culture change like M&S, or weave new learning into existing programmes like Travis Perkins, FutureDotNow has curated content to help you drive change. Through focused attention on the top four skills gaps it’s possible to get 70% of the workforce equipped with the full suite of digital essentials at pace.