With A-Level results just behind
us and GCSE results due tomorrow, we’re firmly in the time where lots of young
people will be taking their first steps on the career ladder.
This is the class of 2012, a
generation that has grown up with the internet and holds a unique set of
natural digital skills.
To show how important young
people are to businesses and the digital skills they can offer, we completed
some research and want to share some of the findings with you here:
- Businesses expect 21% of their growth over the next three years to
come from digital channels, but consider only 35 per cent
of their staff to be digitally savvy.
- Over three-quarters of businesses acknowledge that young people
have great digital skills, but less than 24% are
planning to offer a first time job to a young person in the coming months.
- The unused digital skills of young people is estimated to be
worth £6.7 billion.
This paints quite a worrying
picture and shows the need for businesses to recognise the value of young
people and start harnessing their natural skills. At a time when business
clearly needs digital skills, we're overlooking a group of digital natives that
are raring to go.
We had a quick chat with one of
our apprentices, Daryl Williams, to get his view on the research and see what
he thinks about digital skills.

After completing his first year
of A-Levels, Daryl left college and picked-up work in labouring and retail. He
then joined the O2 apprenticeship scheme in September 2010 and is currently
working in the digital innovation team.
"It’s quite fascinating
really - well, fascinating and worrying! Clearly the value of young people in a
lot of businesses is underrated. I think sometimes companies may be too
keen on experienced people for specific roles and could be missing a trick by
not giving a young person a shot.
I also think young people can do
more to show off what they're capable of. I did a bit of IT at school but
didn't realise how much I knew until I started my internship. I spend
quite a bit of time on Facebook and twitter, but I had no idea that could
actually help me in my job.
I’d encourage everyone to really
focus on showcasing their digital skills and thinking about how they could be important
in the job they’re applying for. Not everyone has these skills naturally, so
make sure you make the most of them and champion the value of them to potential
employees.”
For more background and
information on the research you can visit our
media centre. For information on
opportunities at o2 you can visit
o2careers.co.uk.