The study by the mobile operator also found that businesses expect a fifth (21%) of their growth over the next three years to come through digital channels. When asked, “Which skills would most help your business grow and develop?”, digital skills were on a par with new business development and customer acquisition abilities.

O2 is encouraging young people to showcase their digital talents to potential employers, whilst urging employers to look to young people to fill their digital skills gaps. 

The study makes clear that businesses need to do more to make the most of the digital skills sitting unused in the youth community. Over three-quarters (77%) of businesses acknowledge that young people have digital skills in abundance but less than one quarter (24%) are planning to offer a first time job or an ‘on the job’ training role to a young person in the coming months.

O2 CEO Ronan Dunne said: “There are more than a million young people out of work. It’s a travesty that whilst businesses are crying out for digital skills, they are excluding from the workplace the very people who have them.”

“Now is the time when thousands of young people will be deciding what to do next. We want to encourage them to make the most of the fact that they have grown up in a digital world and be confident in the value of their skills to prospective employers. Businesses need to recognise the value that young people can bring - they are the future fuel of the economy and have the skills we need to help pull us out of recession.”

The findings also reveal a need for businesses to embrace young people and maximise the digital skills young people say they possess:

While digital skills are often seen as the preserve of businesses in London’s Tech City, the findings show a wide range of businesses are also in need of them. When asked to identify from a number of digital skills which they would find the most valuable:

Businesses consider only 35% of their current employees to be digitally savvy, but almost half (49per cent) say they don’t plan to spend anything on up-skilling their current workforce in digital. 

Adam Thilthorpe, Director for Professionalism, BCS Chartered Institute for IT: “Digital skills and IT is at the heart of almost everything in society today. It’s important that not only should everyone be able to make use of technology to take advantage of the benefits information and technology bring to society, but also that we encourage young people to consider their career options and how IT and digital skills apply in the workplace.”

Employers were asked to identify digital skills that would be of value to their business. They were then asked to estimate the amount they would pay in an annualised salary for a range of pre-selected key digital skills (these include: web design, app developing, coding, customer management systems, mobile/location based skills, community management, social media management, e-marketing etc.). The average annualised salary across all skills was £17,956. When polling young people it was revealed that an average of 37% of young people have at least one of the skills of value to businesses.
The latest seasonally adjusted Labour Market unemployment figures reveal that across the UK there are 1,011,640 unemployed 16 to 24 year olds. Therefore the total value of young people’s digital skills was calculated as the number of young people with digital skills (37%) multiplied by the number of unemployed young people (1,011,640) multiplied by the average salary businesses are willing to pay for these skills (£17,956). This revealed the current value of the unused digital skills sitting within the youth community of £6,721,052,900.