Digitisation Makes Further Training Necessary

One in two businesses in the German business economy expects job and task profiles to change as a result of the progressing digitisation in the next two years. Against this backdrop, around 67 per cent of the businesses consider further training on topics relevant for digitisation as very important or important for the company. The share of companies giving a high or very high priority to further training is particularly large in the highly digitalised ICT sector. These are the findings of the Monitoring Report DIGITAL Economy 2016, conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, in collaboration with TNS Infratest, on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

Most of the companies know that digital transformation is not only a matter of technology. Job profiles are equally subject to changes due to the use of new technologies, the growing interconnectedness, as well as the increasing importance of data as a production factor. Therefore, investing in digitisation also means investing in human capital," explains Professor Irene Bertschek, head of ZEW's Research Department "Information and Communication Technologies" at ZEW.

According to the study, companies see the greatest need for further training in the field of data security (see graph at the bottom of the press release). This holds particularly true for sectors processing sensitive data on a daily basis, such as knowledge-intensive service providers, the healthcare sector, and ICT service providers. "The fact that businesses see such a great need for further training in the field of data security reflects just how important data are for them as an economic factor," says Irene Bertschek. Small companies, by contrast, see a comparatively high need for further training regarding rather basic activities such as web search and information procurement via the internet.

The majority of businesses still use traditional forms of further training

Digital technologies create new forms of further training, such as online seminars and educational software. The majority of businesses, however, still rely on more traditional forms of further training, i.e. courses held by internal or external instructors. Only about 33 per cent of businesses make use of computer-aided knowledge transfer via local educational software.

However, businesses acquire new skills not only by way of further training but also by recruiting new staff members. Last year, around 15 per cent of businesses in the German industrial economy hired new staff members with digital competencies, and approximately 15 per cent of business are planning to do so by the end of 2018. Once again, the ICT sector stands out among other sectors due to its great demand for specialists. 31 per cent of businesses in the German ICT sector have already hired ICT professionals, while 43 per cent is planning to do so in the coming two years. Only eleven per cent of businesses recruit foreign staff in order to carry through digitisation projects.

About 50 per cent of businesses expect job and task profiles to change as a result of the progressing digitisation in the next two years. However, only 18 per cent believe that in the next five years computer programmes and robots will fully take over tasks which have previously been carried out by employees.

For more information please contact

Prof. Dr. Irene Bertschek, Phone +49 (0)621/1235-178, E-mail bertschek@zew.de