Addressing Skills Shortages in the UK Communications Industry: Charting the Course for Future Success

In a race against time, the UK’s communications industry finds itself grappling with an ageing workforce and critical shortages in engineering skills. With the labour market at its tightest in years, how can telecom employers overcome these hurdles and pave the way for a thriving future?

Amidst the symphony of bustling signals, the communications industry strives to meet soaring customer demands, all while grappling with a severe scarcity of skilled talent and a technical skills gap that leaves ten roles unfilled per business across the nation. As if that weren’t enough, years of meagre recruitment efforts have caused attrition rates to skyrocket, with over 60% of engineering professionals in the field aged 50 and above, and a woeful lack of trainees and graduates entering the industry to replenish the talent pipeline.

Yet, the challenges facing communications engineering run deeper. Despite 36% of telecoms employers gearing up to expand their workforce in the second quarter of 2023, a staggering 42% of these companies report a dearth of specialist digital or IT skills in the external labour market. To compound the issue, 45% admit to encountering the same alarming skills deficit among their current workforce.

Retiring employees, a scarcity of trainees, a drought of new recruits, and a cavernous technical skills shortfall have thrown the UK’s communications engineering industry into disarray—just as the next wave of technological innovation crashes upon its shores.

Enter “Project Gigabit,” the UK Government’s audacious plan announced in 2020 to provide gigabit broadband access to 85% of households and businesses—30 million premises in the most challenging 20% of the country—by the close of 2025. This momentous undertaking places the burden on the telecoms industry to deliver the coveted 85% coverage, demanding that internet service providers (ISPs) construct robust frameworks for their fibre networks. The success of this ambitious endeavour hinges on the widespread implementation of advanced communication technologies. Alas, a recent report by Eightfold AI reveals that 33% of businesses occupying leading network engineering and operation positions are ill-equipped to adapt to these emerging telecoms trends, including 5G, Open RAN, and artificial intelligence (AI).

These transformative technologies and systems lie at the core of Project Gigabit, enabling the construction of self-optimising networks (SONs) that will meet the future’s escalating demands. Enhanced customer satisfaction, heightened competition, lower service costs, fewer outages, and superior network quality all depend on a robust and highly skilled engineering workforce to provide technical support. Yet, with current recruitment and training programmes failing to bridge the labour and skills gaps, how can communications employers assemble the workforce they need today and for the years to come?

An astonishing 36% of telecoms employers consider AI literacy crucial for their engineers by 2027.

Charting the Course to a Brighter Future—One Step at a Time

To conquer the current and future communications challenges facing consumers, businesses, and the government, a comprehensive transformation of workforce strategies is essential. Relying solely on open recruitment in a static talent pool or allowing skills to wither away, accompanied by rising attrition rates, will yield no solution. Delivering Project Gigabit and other critical communications developments necessitates a fresh approach:

Step 1: Harnessing Experience

Experience is the lifeblood of success. The industry’s current workforce forms the bedrock upon which the future rests. Their foundational skills can be further honed to tackle the mounting technological challenges, while their wealth of expertise can be shared with new entrants. Enriching and retaining the experienced end of the workforce serves as the catalyst for a robust pipeline of engineering professionals across all levels. But how can this be achieved?

• Diagnose before prescribing: Employers must first conduct a comprehensive skills inventory to identify gaps and understand their implications across different worker levels.
• Forge a digital skills strategy: Develop a two-year plan that encompasses upskilling and reskilling initiatives to enhance the skill sets of current employees:
  • Upskilling: Provide digital skills training to sharpen existing workers’ competencies and ensure fluency with new and emerging technologies.
  • Reskilling: Transform roles and offer training in new skills to rejuvenate experienced workers whose current skill sets risk becoming obsolete. By reskilling these invaluable employees, businesses can fill existing gaps and fortify themselves against future shortages, while simultaneously extending the careers of these skilled professionals.

Step 2: Nurturing Fresh Talent

On the other end of the talent pipeline, telecoms employers must accelerate the recruitment of trainees and apprentices. Cultivating a diverse and inclusive work environment is crucial to attracting younger generations, particularly Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2015), who place immense value on diversity, ethnicity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in the workplace. Organisations that lack a strong DEIB platform will struggle to recruit these essential young workers. Hence, DEIB should form a cornerstone of the employer’s proposition (EP)—an intangible magnet that sets a company apart from its competitors. An authentic DEIB policy should permeate all facets of the business, from the C-suite to the shop floor, and be seamlessly integrated into training and digital skills programmes. Moreover, experienced workers must embody these principles, serving as mentors to guide new talent and imparting crucial on-the-job training.

A striking 56% of Gen Z workers would refuse a role in a business lacking diverse leadership.

Embracing the Challenges of Tomorrow—Starting Today

The communications industry confronts formidable obstacles, but they are not insurmountable. Investments in comprehensive training programmes, cultural transformation, and the creation of an attractive employment proposition for trainees and apprentices pave the way to address the prevailing skills and labour shortages plaguing the industry. However, time is of the essence. To bring raw talent up to speed and equip experienced workers with the skills and tools to navigate highly complex technology, immediate action is required. Given the breakneck pace of technological advancement and the projected expansion of communications services across the UK, telecoms employers must swiftly formulate plans for workforce transformation. Failure to do so will transform the scrambling noise into an everlasting refrain: “Service unavailable.”

Answering the Call—A Shared Endeavour

For many telecoms employers, identifying skills gaps and executing programmes to fill them is an arduous task. Success hinges on specialised knowledge of the industry, access to a broad talent pool for fresh recruits, and the ability to implement targeted reskilling and upskilling initiatives, all while prioritising diversity, ethnicity, inclusion, and belonging.

Aventus Recruitment possesses the expertise, talent pool and processes to help telecoms businesses achieve superior workforce outcomes. Effective workforce planning, aligned with the specific needs of the industry, is crucial for securing the skills required for success.

Whether your organisation requires new communications engineers, trainees, apprentices or assistance in developing an authentic diversity and inclusion policy within your employer proposition, Aventus Recruitment stands ready to offer comprehensive solutions tailored to the telecommunications industry.

Contact us today and let us join forces to answer the call for a vibrant and skilled communications workforce.