Closing the Digital Skills Gap: Unveiling Insights from Four Countries

Just decades ago, the internet was an entirely new concept, but it's become second nature for billions of people and is now embedded into daily life across the world. While the internet is old news, there are recent technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and the cloud that have gone from niche, specialized roles in the global economy to the mainstream. This rapid and widespread digitalization has changed the nature of work, and as a result, digital skills are now regarded as essential for the modern workforce. While demand for digital skills is growing, unfortunately supply is lower than it needs to be. Workforce shortages persist across the tech industry with employers struggling to find skilled talent that is prepared for digital roles. A 2021 Rand Corporation report found that the global digital skills gap was widening due to the following factors: tech talent outpacing an already short supply; high costs and disorganized approaches to traditional education that increase barriers to learning; access to digital infrastructure and skills limited by socio-economic status. These findings highlight the barriers confronting workers who want to acquire digital skills. Policymakers around the world need to tackle this problem, both to ensure their industries and businesses can keep pace with the rate and scale of technological innovation, but also to ensure current and future workers will have more opportunities to develop the skills needed to succeed in changing labor markets.