Skills shortage main threat to the government’s digital plan

The Government Digital Service (GDS) believes a shortage of skills is among the biggest factors in a potential failure to make over £1.4 billion in annual savings throughout  Whitehall.

GDS recently made its 2014-15 business plan freely available, shedding light on the main challenges, milestones, and actions it will face in the year ahead.

The organisation has seen its budget reduced by almost £5 million across the last four years, in spite of a substantial increase in new employees experienced over the course of that period.

The document revealed, in a section entitled ‘Risks to the plan’:

“We have insufficient funding, which could mean we’re unable to hire the people with the skills we need. We will address this by reviewing the business plan and budget quarterly so that the GDS Operations Board can take action if required.”

The document went on to talk about the issues with recruiting and retaining skilled professionals. The Government intends to tackle the issue by implementing plans and procedures to hire and retain the most skilled technology and digital staff, laying out career routes, establishing opportunities for employee development, and auditing reward and compensation packages to fulfil market expectations.

Small and medium-sized businesses that plan to offer cyber security jobs in the near future need to be certain they are recruiting skilled specialists – professionals capable of preventing, or minimising the damage inflicted by, harmful information security breaches. Retaining those very same employees is the other half of the battle.

Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240225289/Skills-shortages-identified-as-key-risk-to-Government-digital-strategy