Wednesday 22 June 2016 12:01 am

Half of workers think better tech skills could land them a better job

The majority of UK workers think that they could boost their job prospects simply by learning some IT skills, research out today has found.

However, while the study by Monster discovered that 54 per cent of UK employees thought they could land a better job if they were better with tech, just 15 per cent had embarked on an IT or technology course while at school or university.

The UK's desire to be tech-savvy is so intense that four out of five (84 per cent) employees questioned expressed an interest in receiving training in coding, computer language and digital skills, while around a quarter (24 per cent) now see learning basic coding skills as important.

Unfortunately for the fairer sex, Monster's research found that women might have to study extra hard to get anywhere in the world of tech, with one in five (22 per cent) employers confessing that women were probably at a disadvantage when it came to securing a job in the technology sector.

However, even though around half (48 per cent) of employers admitted that they found it difficult to recruit for tech roles, three-quarters (75 per cent) also said that they had no plans to adapt their staffing policies to better promote gender equality.

"With a looming digital skills gap that is critical for our economy's growth, we need to do all we can to encourage and support organisations in bringing on board more female talent, and today's research highlights there is still a way to go until females have equal representation within the technology sector," said Sinead Bunting, European director of consumer marketing at Monster Worldwide. "It was especially worrying to see so many employers admit they had no plans to adapt their policies."

Amali de Alwis, chief executive of Code First Girls, added: "With the UK looking at a needing further one million tech workers by 2020, we all have to take a serious look at how we manage talent in our companies and update restricting incumbent behaviour which are holding us back from continued success."

Research released by the Science and Technology committee earlier this month discovered that 12.6m adults in the UK lack basic digital skills, which is ultimately costing the UK economy £63bn every year.