Narrowing the tech skills gap with Recruit Train Deploy

Over the last decade in the tech market, we have all witnessed these accentuating themes; a widening global tech skills gap, rapidly increasing contract rates and more recently a growing emphasis on DE&I and Social Mobility in hiring agendas.

We have seen companies caught in a feedback loop, forced to address their short-term needs by paying higher and higher contract rates each year. Whilst paying the higher rates solves the immediate problem, it isn’t a long-term solution and does little to address the bigger skills gap issue.

Myth 3 of the AMS tech whitepaper discusses the Recruit Train Deploy (RTD) model as a solution. It looks at how AMS’s Tech Skilling team are helping organisations overcome the skills gap by taking a mid to long term approach to building and retaining future talent pipelines.

The RTD model is designed to address niche skills shortages in the economy by investing in future talent from diverse backgrounds. The applicants are selected on their aptitude and future potential as opposed to their academic credentials, following the lead of many companies in the big tech world by removing degree requirements. They are then trained with sought after tech skills before being deploying into long term assignments with the aim of converting into permanent employment. AMS’s Tech Skilling team also offer a reskilling service; helping companies to retrain their existing workforces to keep their skills relevant for future needs, reducing the need for redundancies and increasing talent retention.

We have recently introduced a new “Recruit Train Deploy” service line on the Public Sector Resourcing (PSR) Framework,  managed by AMS.  It’s a privilege to have recently joined the RTD team which is supporting government departments to not only establish a longer-term solution to addressing their skills gap but at the same time opening the doors to often underrepresented talent and making a positive change by increasing diverse representation across their workforces.

If a department believes they will struggle to hire a skillset through traditional methods, they now have an alternative route to take, an option that allows them to grow and design their own tech workforce from the ground up.

According to a new study by CWJobs, over two thirds (67%) of young adults are considering a career in tech, which highlights the potential we have for narrowing the tech skills gap in this country. I truly believe that this is a real positive, long term and sustainable solution to improving the tech talent marketplace for both employers and employees of the future.