Warnings of a digital "skills gap"

The CBI has called for businesses and the government to boost digital skills, saying that there were too few graduates with digital skills, such as web design or computer programming, for the jobs available. However, a survey of 2,000 parents by the technology company O2 found that 23% of parents thought skills such as coding were "irrelevant". O2 said that this showed a "disturbing disconnect" between skills in demand from employers and those valued by parents. They said that 750,000 digitally skilled workers will be needed by 2017 to satisfy Britain's "digital potential". Twice the number of UK students took up degrees in medicine compared with computer science between 2012 and 2013.

A spokesperson for O2, Ann Pickering, said it was "no surprise" that parents were "struggling" to keep pace. "I'm a parent, and if I didn't work for a technology company I wouldn't realise the opportunities that are out there," she added. Ms Pickering said, "It is getting harder to get the skills we require. These are skills that didn't exist five years ago, like with social media, for example." Hugh Milward, director of corporate affairs at Microsoft, said, "In the software industry alone there are 20,000 graduate vacancies a year, and only 7,500 computer science graduates to fill them. Digital skills such as coding are being demanded not only by the high-tech sector, but by fast-growing sectors like media, publishing and finance."