“The idea that you turn your back on the world’s largest trading block, and send a message to the rest of the world that you are pulling up the draw bridge and wanting to get away from it, would be catastrophic,” said Labour’s shadow minister for small business Toby Perkins in an interview with Real Business.
Business accelerator Tech City UK has enhanced its Digital Business Academy, which provides free enterprise skills from BBC, O2, Microsoft, Twitter and more, following over 12,000 programme registrations from across the nation.
Picking out the shortage of adequately-skilled workers in the UK right now, Chris Wood joins our “I’m voting as…” series by outlining what kind of government he’d like to see come into power.
By David Craik
In 2012 the Institute of Leadership and Management announced that business were being held back by a lack of management skills. SMEs are back on the acquisition trail but the lack of highly skilled managers still persists. This could threaten businesses’s long-term growth.
Realising the opportunities that new technologies provide, Jules Coleman left her management consultancy career after teaching herself to code in just six weeks – now, as the co-founder of digital cleaning marketplace Hassle.com, she calls on entrepreneurs to be ready for change.
Media recognition firm Shazam has joined the Young Founders accelerator programme to support young British talent with the skills, knowledge and confidence to follow their dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.
At a Digital Youth Council meeting, made up of tech-savvy youngsters aged 9-17 as chosen by Virgin Media Business, Richard Branson has insisted that digital skills are incredibly important for the future of the UK’s economy.
In order to support “stakeholders in town city communities”, a five-year digital strategy has been created by the Digital High Street Advisory Board to encourage a focus on web and mobile connectivity, which could unlock £18.8bn in revenue for SMEs.
In Didier Elzinga’s previous role as a Hollywood visual effects chief working on CGI for the likes of Harry Potter, he decided to branch out to start a software business where he could harness his experience as a “glorified psychiatrist.”
In 2014 it was suggested that by 2017 some 745,000 new “digital workers” would be needed. The challenge now is to ensure that talent supply meets demand in order to stimulate future economic growth. The problem is that businesses are finding it hard to recruit the right candidates for the job.
