While barriers are being broken in an attempt to attract more people into a career in technology, cloud talent firm Revolent has identified research ahead of National Innovation day that proves young people are still reluctant to join the industry.
The annual celebration is aimed at inspiring young designers and creators to be proud of the innovative ideas they have, a trait that is much needed within STEM organizations as the global talent shortage looms large.
However, with the industry being on the brink of a critical skills gap, the Swipe Right for Tech study by Finsbury Glover Hering revealed that 41% of young people in the US feel it’s too late for them to learn the skills needed, as they didn’t have the opportunity to study topics at school to prepare them for a career in the tech sector.
“That means there’s a generation of young people who have the ideas, but not the confidence or hard skills needed to succeed in a career in IT,” said Nabila Salem, President at Revolent.
“While we can’t take retroactive action on that, it’s essential employers see the value in soft skills such as creativity and innovation, and are willing to invest in upskilling and cross-training to equip them with the hard skills needed to succeed. Tomorrow’s talent isn’t fully-formed now, so the onus is on us all to support them.”
Cloud heroes helping others with barriers ahead of them
Of course, those barriers don’t just exist for young people. Women still face significant obstacles when it comes to long-term careers in technology, whether that’s through unconscious bias putting them off from the outset, or a lack of support for parents resulting in dropouts. Either way, organizations such as Anitab, Coding Girls, Black Women in Technology and Black Girls Who Code are acting as trailblazers, champions and a support network for women from many different backgrounds. Coding Girls even runs its own conferences and events dedicated to helping more women enter and advance in tech careers.
That means female professionals with digital career goals don’t have to solely rely on support offered by their own organization but can look to mentors and allies from a broader spectrum to help equip them with either the skills, support, or both to excel in their own individual workplaces.
Plus, regardless of the backing you need, the likelihood is that there’s a cloud advocate with experience tailored to the needs of an individual. For example, Deaf in the Cloud is a virtual user group aimed at giving deaf and hard of hearing individuals feedback and career advice, as well as offering support across several areas of tech.
There’s also Blacks in Technology and Black and Brown Founders offering guidance when it comes to those from diverse backgrounds, while Vervoe and Changecatalyst are, respectively, helping create software and training packages that help organizations take a more inclusive approach to recruitment, and providing allyship training.
In short, it doesn’t matter how a young person reaches the beginning steps of their career in tech, what their goals or ambitions are, or what their background is—there are a huge array of amazing organizations and advocates within the cloud community that can offer support and advocacy beyond just an individual’s employer.
What can employers do to help?
With many young people either leaving or wanting to leave a job due to company culture making them feel uncomfortable, there’s still a genuine need for employers to offer appropriate support networks for people of all backgrounds and life experiences, to continue to encourage the innovation and energy that youth can bring.
For many, that means making a conscious effort to move away from the previous norm of identifying a company or corporate culture and hiring “the perfect fit”, and instead focussing on talent and potential, with recruitment focused on filling skills gaps as the priority ahead of personality.
“Too often we focus on company culture as being what identifies the organizations we work in, but it’s people who give a company its identity,” added Salem. “Having a pre-decided culture and hiring people to fit into that doesn’t just put people off joining, but it gives you a narrower perspective and results in only having one viewpoint when it comes to tackling any potential problems. Narrowing your pool of talent only succeeds in slowing your growth.”
While The Swipe Right’s report also suggests tech’s reputation for long hours is off-putting, alongside 57% of young people looking for a better work-life balance in their career of choice, the opportunity is there for businesses to react with the support needed in order to attract professionals into the industry—and Salem believes the pandemic has the potential to have a transformational change to the way digital careers are perceived outside of the industry.
“There’s been a huge shift as we’ve seen the true value of tech experts as the world moved online,” she added. “Putting support mechanisms in place that prioritize wellbeing wasn’t just the right thing to do, but they were essential to avoid burnout in a critical workforce. With the addition of remote work for most professionals, there’s never been a better opportunity for young IT professionals to find the perfect work-life balance.”
A year that may be transformative for young people in tech
Although the social aspect of work can be a big draw for younger people, and living arrangements can also mean that home isn’t necessarily the best working environment either, it’s important to create flexibility in your employees’ working week so that they can enjoy a work-life balance that doesn’t put them at risk of burnout, or disillusionment with the industry.
Tech can and should be a vibrant and energetic environment, rather than one where workers are expected to work a fixed 9-5 with long hours on top of that. For any young person who has commitments and interests beyond their desk, it’s vital you facilitate that as much as possible. And, after the permanent switch to allow more flexible and hybrid working patterns post-pandemic, it should be promoted heavily during the recruitment process to encourage a wider range of applicants.
With Innovation Day highlighting the importance of young people to the workplace, it underlines to businesses that it’s never been more important to foster a supportive and inclusive working environment, in order to help remove another barrier that stands between potential talent and a career in tech.
