Skills, Talent and Diversity updates
Sign-up to get the latest updates and opportunities from our Skills, Talent and Diversity programme.
Working Together: Digital Connectivity Forum unites on skills
Research shows that the UK telecoms and digital connectivity sector faces challenges across its workforce. Both in terms of levels of diversity, but also through the emergence of a widening skills gap that is already being felt across the sector and looks set to become increasingly entrenched as we look towards the future unless active change is made.
Statistics point towards lack of female progression into senior roles and a dwindling pipeline of young talent entering the industry, which is leading to an ageing workforce and an uncertain future for UK telecoms talent.
From the 2021 Census (England & Wales), we know that 50.8%1 of the UK working-age population are women. In contrast, DCMS estimated that in 2021 women accounted for only 32.4%2 of filled jobs within the telecoms sector. However, UKTIN quoted in 2024 that only 19%3 of the UK telecoms workforce is female.
Correspondingly the Digital Connectivity Forum’s report with Opinium in 2023 suggested that there is a steep drop of female representation across the sector after the age of 354. Could these figures combined suggest that we are actively losing, and not replacing, female talent in the industry?
Similarly, with considerations of an ageing workforce, UKTIN reported that around 60%3 of UK telecoms engineers are over the age of 50, whilst a study from Engineering UK reported that only 3%5 of the UK telecoms tech workforce are under the age of 35. This highlights starkly the risk of a talent pipeline that is unable to support the future needs of a sector, particularly as those already present approach retirement age. This challenge exists now and becomes increasingly critical as we face a world where connectivity becomes necessity. Spotlighting the risk that if we don’t tackle questions such as, ‘how do we attract talent to the industry’, ‘what are the barriers affecting diverse talent flow’, and ‘how do we create healthy, rewarding environments for everyone’, we risk jeopardising not only the future of the sector, but also the realisation of the social and economic rewards that quality connectivity offers the UK.
Whilst the above statistics highlight diversity and skills challenges in the sector, it is important to remember that this is a topic that goes beyond these more represented markers of gender and age. Telecoms, like many other sectors, faces representation inconsistency in many ways, including protected characteristics such as ethnicity and disability, as well as non-protected characteristics such as socioeconomic background. Furthermore, intersectionality means that different factors can affect someone’s journey in ways that mean two candidates who are, for example, women, but from different backgrounds or life experiences, might experience the same sector in very different ways.
So, how do we tackle these questions that often relate into deeply complex, and often systemic, challenges in a way that is reasonable and actionable for telecoms to make a meaningful difference for companies and individuals?
That is what the Digital Connectivity Forum’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion working group came together to address. Formed of leading companies from across the UK telecoms sector, the group focuses on ways to address and improve inclusivity and accessibility across the industry to generate positive outcomes and building on the sectors active cross section of work which is already making progress.
But the big question for our working group in tackling such a large and complex issue is inevitably, where do we start? And how do we not get lost in the magnitude of the scope. In answer to this, the group concluded that skills and talent were the critical foundation. If talent isn’t flowing into the sector, how can the sector ever improve its diversity?
In speaking to other organisations, we found that whilst the UK telecoms sector is struggling to recruit young talent, there is concurrently a concerning job crisis emerging among graduates. In an interview with Times Radio, James Reed, CEO of Reed stated that his site had seen a drop of nearly 70% in advertised graduate roles over a three-year period through to late 2025.
The telecoms sector can feel abstract and misunderstood to those not within it. Many of us have internet connections, but how many of us understand how that connectivity is delivered and how it works? Further from that, does telecoms have an image problem. What do people think of when they hear the word ‘telecoms’?
Is it old fashioned? Is it future thinking? Is it male dominated? Is it labour intensive and field based? Does it offer a wide variety of job roles and opportunities?
Until we know what people think of the sector, we won’t know how to market it, and until we know the challenges of the individuals, we won’t be able to provide outreach that supports the collective effectively.
To approach this the DCF has committed to working on a report which explores the barriers to entering the connectivity sector. Aiming to identify the levels of awareness, perception, and the challenges to entering the connectivity sector, alongside the incentives to joining and critically, staying.
To do this we will focus on key demographics across the talent pool: 18–25-year-olds and those still in education, job seekers, apprentices, career switchers and career returners. Approaching through the above lens we will aim to identify what is currently causing candidates to not consider, or to turn away from, a career in telecoms and digital connectivity.
We will expand on this through discussions with educators, recruiters and crucially the telcos themselves on the skills gaps and challenges they are witnessing and how we can overcome these together. We will use these aggregate findings to develop and discuss recommendations to overcome identified challenges for a more accessible, and more inclusive sector for everyone.
The Digital Connectivity Forum DEI working group is looking forward to reporting its findings as part of its barriers to entering the connectivity sector report.
If you would like to learn more about the project, the working group, or the DCF, you can contact them at [email protected].
1Working population statistic 2021 Census
2DCMS Sectors economic estimates 2021 3UKTIN Stats
4DCF Opinium report 5techUK engineering UK stat
About the campaign
techUK’s TechTogether campaign continues with a focus on ‘equity by design'. Our insights this week focus on the importance of inclusive design in product development, creating technology that is accessible to people with disabilities, tackling affordability, connectivity, and digital skills gaps through cross-sector partnerships and community-led initiatives, and, ensuring public services are co-designed with disabled, ethnic, and older users.
TechTogether - Week 3
Other opportunities to get involved:
Other related insights:
