SKILLS SPOTLIGHT
BUILDING YOUR TALENT PIPELINE : HOW TO ENGAGE WITH EDUCATION
CNet Training ’ s President and CEO , Andrew Stevens , discusses how the data centre industry can work to tackle the skills shortage and future protect their organisations by engaging more with education .
Earlier this year , I worked alongside the Edge Foundation where I have been a Trustee since 2015 , to create an Employer Engagement Guide to help employers from all sectors build their engagement with education .
There are a lot of sectors facing skills shortages and the data centre industry is no exception . Demand keeps on growing . As an industry , we are already struggling to find new talent to fill vacant roles and this issue is only going to worsen as demand grows further across the globe . The temptation is to try and fill skills gaps quickly by attracting talent from neighbouring businesses or sectors . That seems to solve the short-term problem , but it creates a merry-go-round of challenges and escalating costs across the labour market .
Organisations need to be working harder to bring new people into the industry in order to inspire a new generation and thus make more people aware of what a data centre is and the vast array of career paths and opportunities that this fantastic industry has to offer . Organisations need to not just be looking at quick short-term fixes , but instead looking to education and engaging with students in schools from as young as the age of five . Organisations need to start introducing the digital infrastructure industry into schools and onto the curriculum alongside developing creative ways to bring Science , Technology , Engineering and Mathematics ( STEM ) skills to life in the classroom . This is something that the industry needs to work hard at over the next 10 – 15 years in order to make a real difference .
I want engagement in education to become the next sustainability for employers – working together towards a long-term shared goal that drives collaboration and provides a very valuable economic and social return .
I have put together a list of the top 10 opportunities that can be applied to the digital infrastructure industry . These points are designed to help organisations across the data centre industry engage further with learners aged five years old through to 16 +. These points will help build a pipeline of skilled young people ready to fill the gaps needed from the increased demand alongside recent reports , stating that up to 50 % of existing staff across the data centre industry are looking to retire within the next five years .
From five years old :
1 . Offer a teacher / tutor externship Teachers must be given the opportunity to learn first-hand what the industry is about , the vast array of job opportunities it can create and what skills may be required . We need it to become the norm in the same way as it is for other industries , for example , plumbing , construction , electrical – most people have some understanding of the training
60 www . intelligentdatacentres . com