ComputerWeekly: Head of Cognizant’s Banking and Financial Services Practice in the UK Says the Financial Sector Holds an Example for Other Sectors to Solve the Graduate STEM Skill Shortage in the UK

“A subject of much debate over the last few months, the CBI and many of its members agree that there is a severe shortage of advanced and technical STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) skills and that this shortage needs to be addressed imminently,” writes Tony Virdi. “For now, the latest round of graduates busy applying for jobs are still likely to face barriers due to a lack of experience, average university exam results or simply being put off by the STEM sector altogether. In order to introduce more and better skilled graduates to a STEM career, especially women, it is not just government and the education sector that will play a big part; the wider STEM sector has a major role to play as well.” Excerpts:

“Financial organizations, for example, are already addressing the issue directly by providing more in-house technical training schemes, and other sectors could adopt a similar approach.

In the banking sector, we have already started to see some businesses take the initiative by encouraging and supporting school-age pupils to consider STEM careers, eventually leading to potentially becoming the graduate intake of the future.

For example, Cognizant is working closely with Teach First, a charity with the vision that no child’s educational success is limited by their socio-economic background. As one of the charity’s primary focuses is on encouraging young people to take an interest in STEM subjects, a number of our senior executives are volunteering some of their time in the classroom to support the charity’s emphasis on STEM subjects. By connecting our employees with teachers and their pupils, we can help tackle educational inequality and encourage higher education whilst providing tangible business benefits, particularly in STEM related subjects.

This early stage, collaborative approach to entry-level IT and business training is fairly unique across all industries at the moment. However, we expect to see greater demand for this, as more and more businesses start to realize the benefits of addressing technical skills’ shortages directly. Having this control also means they can tailor the training programs with their selected partner to ensure the candidates are better prepared for their specific roles.

In addition to mentoring and teaching technical and business skills, graduates should be exposed to different markets early on. Global companies are in the best position to offer work opportunities in different countries.

Organizations should take the lead to ensure they get the best talent entering the business which is then equipped with the right skill set according to the industry’s requirements. After all, in the digital age, having the right skills within the business will help them run better and give competitive edge by supporting and nurturing tomorrow’s innovators. The banking sector has already made good progress in introducing graduates to IT and technology expertise. It is up to other sectors to follow suit and assess their approach now, to address their own skills shortages."

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