Other Discussion

Addressing Skill Gaps in Emerging Tech

Xavier Wallace · 3 Aug 2026

The rapid adoption of emerging technologies like quantum computing and extended reality, we have a significant skills gap that's affecting our project delivery times. As an employer, I do not know how to bridge this gap quickly, especially with the current talent shortage in the UK. We have tried training our existing staff, but it's not enough, so I was wondering how other companies are addressing this issue, are they partnering with external training providers or hiring from a global talent pool.

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4 replies

Martin Boyd · 3 Aug 2026

I think we're putting too much emphasis on finding people with existing skills in emerging tech, when we should be looking for folks with a strong foundation in programming and problem-solving. We've had some success with hiring junior devs and having them work alongside our more experienced staff on projects that incorporate things like AWS or Azure, and that's helped us fill the gaps pretty quickly.

Ashton Marshall · 3 Aug 2026

I've seen companies try to fill the skills gap by hiring recent graduates from top universities, but we tried that and it didn't work out for us, the graduates lacked the practical experience we needed. We're now considering partnering with online course providers like Udacity to upskill our existing staff in areas like AI and machine learning.

Samantha Cooper · 3 Aug 2026

I've got 5 years of experience in tech and I think we cannot solely rely on external training providers, we've had some success with online courses like Pluralsight which has helped upskill around 20 of our staff in areas like AI and machine learning. We've also been using tools like GitHub to attract new talent and have found that open sourcing some of our projects has been a good way to find people with the skills we need.

Charlie Obrien · 3 Aug 2026

Given our budget constraints, we cannot afford to hire external consultants so I tried using online platforms like Udemy to upskill our staff, but we saw a dropout rate of 60% after 6 months. I think we need to consider more interactive tools like Pluralsight which offers a more comprehensive course structure, I've heard they have a pretty good track record with companies like ours.