Michael Oakes, RM Technology: Closing the channel's digital skills gap starts with primary school education

Michael Oakes, managed services product manager at RM Technology, argues that AI is only a stop-gap in tackling the skills gap, and MSPs still need to consider the long-term investments in training and education

The UK has for a long time been experiencing a digital skills gap. Two thirds of businesses report experiencing this problem, according to one recent study. This not only affects innovation and recruitment but also those businesses' productivity. The same study revealed that UK employees lose an average of 2.33 hours per week, per person because of difficulties in operating new applications in their daily routines.

Managed service providers (MSPs), of all businesses, have suffered from this skills gap more than most due to the high standard of skill required to work in the sector. This causes staff shortages, prevents them from fulfilling their potential to grow, and forces them to wage an intense war against other MSPs for suitable employees. In a recent Barracuda report, 38 per cent of MSPs referred to talent attraction and retention as one of their biggest challenges.

It's clear that to close the skills gap, MSPs need to look for a long-term solution that can help foster a new generation of talent and position working in the channel as an exciting career path. This solution, I believe, begins in the classroom.

MSPs perceive AI as a possible panacea

Since the rise in popularity of generative AI tools, such as Copilot and Gemini, many MSPs have leapt at the prospect of integrating their workflows with generative AI. This, they believe, would also help to address the high rate of stress in the industry, which a third referred to as a prominent challenge in the Barracuda report. The industry perceives AI as the only promising solution to a protracted challenge that it's been trying to overcome for years.

But while AI will play an important role in MSPs' future operations, too many have rallied behind it without exploring the full potential of other means of addressing the digital skills gap. We still do not understand the true potential and limitations of AI in business operations. There will for now, and for the foreseeable future, always remain a need for skilled and passionate people. No degree of AI integration will change that.

The vast majority of employees do want to learn new skills, which may or may not include the use of generative AI tools. They lack the innate tendency to do so on their initiative though. Just as somebody born in the countryside will intuitively seek outdoor spaces, those who start using technology to their benefit from a young age will seek to use it to their advantage in later life. But we, as a society, are failing to promote this.

Research from the Department for Education found that 60 per cent of school leaders believe staff lack confidence and skills with technology. Many teachers feel overwhelmed dealing with the developments in AI, for example, meaning that generations miss out on learning digital skills from a young age. The knock-on effect has proven devastating for the channel's ability to source a new generation of talent.

Children should be engaging with technology from an earlier stage

To eliminate the digital skills gap among working-age adults, we must recognise the necessity to promote digital engagement from a young age. Children should be learning how to engage with it from a primary school level of education. Practical experiences can be fun and informative. Although they may only learn very basic lessons about digital technology, this interaction will instill in them an interest that they'll carry through to older age.

In its current form, most primary schools are struggling to do this.

Teachers and schools alike of course want their students to have the digital skills they need to succeed both inside and outside of the classroom. Yet, many schools lack the support and guidance on how to safely introduce technology in the classroom, particularly at a younger age. I've been an eye-witness to this in my years of close involvement with technological development in British schools with RM Technology.

So how can we do this effectively, while maintaining children's safety? The important thing to recognise here is that teaching technology to primary school-level children should focus on sparking their interest. Children of that age can learn basic skills that might prove useful later in their lives, but the aim here is to capture their imaginations of what careers in technology – and perhaps later in the channel industry – can offer.

Offering personalised and interactive lessons can also go a long way in providing a new perspective and bringing lessons to life. Whether that's inspiring children to learn about space by using metaverse technology or creating learning materials which offer students a glimpse into how the channel sector works, it's key that these materials are fun and exciting for students.

The digital skills gap in the channel industry won't disappear without significant action. And while AI might seem like an appealing solution, in reality, it will be more of a stop-gap. We must seek to inspire more people to seek careers in the channel, and that should be starting much earlier on in their lives.