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Tech Skills Shortfall Frustrates Startups Looking to Hire


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Some tech founders are offering a share of their business to attract staff.

Credit: Getty Images

Hundreds of startups are struggling to hire people with tech expertise, particularly in software engineering, coding, and machine learning.

The so-called digital skills gap has been building for years not just because of the growth of tech startups, but due to the rapid digitization of non-tech companies.

"There's a skills shortage because the technological change came so fast, before education could respond," said Clare Walsh, director of education at the Institute of Analytics. She believes companies need to stop relying on education to provide people with the skills they need.

"Very few other professions actually expect people to leave school ready to go into that profession. We [need to] retrain them and reskill them to do a specific job," she said.

The digital skills gap is not unique to the U.K. In the U.S., Big Tech salaries have risen to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Spain and France are emerging as new tech hubs, and need staff. India's IT companies have struggled to meet demand domestically and overseas.

From Financial Times
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