Today, we’re laying out our plans to engage and influence both the UK and devolved governments in light of the recent launch of the UK Digital Strategy. We want to see greater representation of cloud consulting and technology SMEs as the digital strategy is rolled out and devolved governments announce their plans. For the CCTA and our members, one of the most important parts of the strategy is the section on digital skills and talent.

We welcome the government’s recognition of the importance of having a digitally skilled workforce and the benefits that this workforce can have for both the UK economy and its position on the global stage. Startlingly, the report reveals that “The digital skills gap is estimated to cost the UK economy £63 billion per year in lost potential gross domestic product (GDP) and is expected to widen”. This is something that our members know about all too well – with many telling us that the current cloud skills gap is the single biggest barrier to growth and expansion for their businesses. Government recognition of this is a step in the right direction but the voice of SMEs in addressing these challenges is missing.

In the coming months, the CCTA will engage with the UK and devolved governments to address the issues raised by members and highlighted in this report. We’ll be focusing on four areas: Greater representation and consultation of SMEs in the sector, tax changes to support investment in training, embedding cloud computing in the curriculum, engaging devolved governments as they develop their updated digital strategies.

Whilst we welcome the report’s announcement of a ‘Digital Skills Council’ there was a notable absence of SME representation. We want to see SME representation on the Council and will be engaging with the UK government to that end. Likewise, we want to see specific consultations held on how small and medium businesses can play their part in the digital strategy’s delivery, and how the measures outlined can be built to suit their needs.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, recently said in a speech that he would be looking at how the tax system could be utilised to support tech companies to train and develop talent. We’ll engage with the UK Treasury to promote tax support for SMEs that allows them to invest in training new staff. The opportunity cost of hiring newly qualified staff is a barrier not just for our sectors growth but for developing the next generation of practitioners – the CCTA is calling on the government to address this urgently.

We’ve seen advances in digital education over the past decade but cloud skills remain conspicuously absent from the curriculum. We’ll be engaging with the Department’s for Education across the four nations of the UK to ensure that cloud skills aren’t forgotten when it comes to shaping the future of digital teaching. Any future digital strategy that fails to account for the need for cloud skills in the future workforce would be missing a key element.

The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish government’s digital strategies were last updated in 2020 and early 2021. We want to see devolved governments developing updated strategies given the rapid changes in the digital landscape since the pandemic began. We’ll seek to work with devolved government to help embed cloud skills and the cloud sector from the ground up in these strategies and work to highlight the impact of the sector across the four nations.

These four areas of focus will be at the heart of the work that the CCTA does in the coming months and work is already underway.