According to research by IDC published earlier this year, nine out of 10 workers will need to learn new digital skills to do their jobs by 2030, at a cost of £1.3 billion a year.
There is arguably no sector where this is more pressing than in defence, where the MOD faces a digital skills race to stay ahead of adversaries who are using technology to create unprecedented threats – such as cyber attacks on critical infrastructure.
The MOD’s Digital Strategy for Defence, published this summer, states that “we have critical digital skills gaps across the enterprise.”
In the same strategy, Air Vice-Marshal Ian Gale, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, says: “In an increasingly digital competition, we all need to individually play our part in stepping up, upskilling and practicing our digital art and tradecraft if we’re to win against increasingly sophisticated adversaries.”
That the MOD has placed the people and skills piece at the heart of its strategy to build a modern “digital backbone” for defence, is absolutely vital.
The MOD has broken this down as needing to deliver: a transformed workforce with the right skills, roles and mix of people; a highly skilled digital function, investing in people to deliver a professionalised, interoperable workforce with the digital capabilities required; and, crucially, “a digital culture across defence.”
From my years of experience working with large and complex public sector organisations on digital transformation, it is those that recognise technology modernisation must move in line with cultural change who enjoy greatest success.
While it may sound counterintuitive for someone from a technology company to say that solving technology is often the simplest part of the journey, at Dell Technologies we believe passionately in supporting that cultural aspect to ensure targets are met.
We are, for example, currently working with the MOD to put transformative digital capabilities into the hands of frontline personnel, enabling more flexible and personalised user experiences to enhance productivity and tactical advantage.
But true technological capability requires ongoing support and sharing of expertise – which is where the power of our partner ecosystem plays a crucial role.
By working with other major technology innovators and government procurement frameworks, our dedicated technical teams have developed deep experience of MOD and intelligence operations.
We are therefore perfectly placed to help bridge the gaps between people, process, data and technology in creating a true digital culture for defence.
At a time of increasingly complex challenges from known and unknown adversaries around the world, defence leaders need to ensure their people have the ongoing support to make maximum tactical advantage from the digital tools in their hands.
Ensuring your technology vendors can provide not only cutting-edge technology, but the defence industry insight and expertise to support people in their ability to use those tools, is now a vital part of the defence technology procurement process.
Finding the right strategic technology allies today will go a long way to ensuring you have the digitally skilled people to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
Matt Lawson is Director of UK Defence & Strategy Lead at Dell Technologies
