Digital Skills

Sectors that rely heavily on digital skills are currently experiencing a boom that few other industries have ever experienced. As our lives become increasingly interwoven with technology, our dependence on digital skills increases, too. From the constantly-developing world wide web and social media through to business transactions and the corporate world, the things that make our lives faster and easier, and our worlds bigger require more digital skills experts than ever to manage them. As a result, there are also countless digital skills courses to help ambitious learners forge careers in the field. From short courses to online programming degrees, there is plenty to choose from. Check them out below and see for yourself!

Subjects in Digital Skills

Benefits

FAQ

Career Paths

Top 5 Roles

Career Prospects

Qualifications

Levels of Courses

How to Become an IT Professional

Ways to Study

Skills

Daily Tasks

Benefits

FAQ

Career Paths

Top 5 Roles

Career Prospects

Qualifications

Levels of Courses

How to Become an IT Professional

Ways to Study

Skills

Daily Tasks

Benefits of Digital Skills

With the field of information technology and digital skills evolving at an extraordinary rate, opportunities for career growth in the sector emerge and evolve with it. Studying digital skills courses is a great way of making headway in a range of promising fields whilst also offering benefits such as:

Wider range of career choices

Expertise in digital skills allows for a number of different career paths that you could embark on.

High pay

The demand for and the value of digital skills specialists is on an unrivalled rise.

Job satisfaction

Job satisfaction in key digital skills areas is reported as being double that of the UK average for other professional fields (Experts Exchange survey).

Career certainty

Digital skills experts are extremely sought-after and seen as more key to an organisation’s success than roles in other sectors.

Digital Skills FAQ

What Are Digital Skills?

Digital skills apply to all digital areas that a company may interact with. As most data is now stored on computers, digital skills expert can facilitate the creation, processing, storage, security and exchange of different types of electronic data.

Your day-to-day tasks can be within all digital areas that your company may interact with. This could be in managing databases, dealing with cyber security or providing general IT support. In more specialist roles, you may be in charge of tasks such as keeping systems and data secure, and making sure networks are functioning correctly. Things like data input, database management and programming also play an important part, and therefore require professional supervision. With technology and the functions we need it to perform on the rise, different strands of digital skills expertise come into play and companies require more talented individuals. It is precisely for this reason that the qualifications within digital skills are so in demand right now.

Will Digital Skills Provide Career Opportunities?

Work within sectors that rely heavily on digital skills experts can be bountiful for those who boast the right set of qualifications. The continuing digitisation of the workplace brings with it a great number of jobs and opportunities for skilled individuals to take on exciting careers in areas such as biotechnology, nanotechnology and robotics. The rewards and benefits of pursuing work that requires an in-depth knowledge of digital skills can be impressive; with salaries for entry-level IT and digital skills professionals ranging from £25k to £37k, according to PayScale. If you’re looking for sustained growth and learning, a good salary and the chance to pursue jobs in exciting up-and-coming areas, then digital skills courses could be for you.

How Hard Are Digital Skills Courses?

Given how many sectors digital skills can open you up to, it can be tricky to gauge its overall difficulty level. Naturally, with some specialisations such as cyber security, courses will often feature a lot of theoretical and maths-heavy material. Whether this is something you find difficult largely depends on where your strengths and your interests lie.

In some cases, however, you’ll find that some digital skills courses (BTEC, for instance) are divided into various levels, ranging from Level 1 to Level 6. This invites you to assess your existing knowledge and experience before opting for a course that best matches your learning needs. However, it’s also worth bearing in mind that not all courses will be split into levels, with many short, vendor-specific certifications awarding general qualifications in specific aspects of digital skills, such as network security. Examples of issuers of this type of qualifications include CompTIA, Microsoft and Cisco courses.

In either case, the most important thing is to make sure you pick a course that truly interests you. All courses are bound to present you with some challenges, but as long as you’re interested in the area and are willing to commit to learning about it, you’ll be better able to deal with those challenges.

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Career Paths

Software and Applications Development

Cyber Security
Analysis

Web
Engineering

Cloud Computing Architecture

Big Data

Programming

Top 5 Roles

Despite there being a very wide range of lucrative digital skills roles in the field, there are some that stand out as being especially popular, whether that be due in part to their pay, their promising projected growth or overall reported job satisfaction. Those roles are:

Mobile Application Developer
Information Security Analyst
Web Developer

Cloud Solutions Architect
Data Scientist

Career Prospects

The growth in digitisation and computing means that career prospects for digital skills professionals are significantly better than those of professionals from other sectors. Have a look at our stats and see for yourself!

£33,0

Average Salary For Digital Skills Roles

£57,00

Average Salary For Digital Skills Roles Requiring Significant Experience

Job Growth

2014 → 2024

Digital Skills Professionals are employed in the UK

Digital Skills Qualifications

Below you’ll see the results of an industry report carried out by ITJobsWatch. These results identify the qualifications most often asked for in all digital skills job vacancy advertisements in the last six months.

of digital skills jobs ask for a bachelor-level degree

15.43% PhD
3.90% Master’s degree
2% CISCO certification

Levels of Courses

Level 3

Completion of this level allows you to progress on to a higher qualification (Level 4/Certificate). This may also qualify you for some junior-level positions in the IT and digital industry, but in order to maximise your chances of securing employment, more qualifications are required.

Level 4 • Certificate

Completion of this stage qualifies you for the Diploma level of study, some undergraduate courses, or entry-level employment at smaller IT companies.

Level 5 • Diploma

Completion of this stage qualifies you for the Diploma level of study, some undergraduate courses, or entry-level employment at smaller IT companies.

Level 6 • Bachelor’s degree

Completion of this level enables you to either continue studying at graduate level or pursue employment in a relevant field of your choice. Most, if not all, career paths within IT are accessible to you now.

How to Become a Digital Skills Professional

Decide on your specialisation
Choose a role and area that fits in with your interests, strengths and existing experience.
Apply for a course
Whether it be a bachelor’s degree, a vocational course or a specific certification, make sure to obtain some valuable and relevant qualifications first.
Look for jobs in your area of expertise
Use your interest in your chosen sub-field and your obtained qualifications to show employers you’re worth hiring!

Ways to Study Digital Skills

Online

This method involves you working independently from a place of your choice and studying uploaded course material at your own speed and according to your own learning preferences.

Part-Time Blended

This is the traditional study method and it involves having a teaching professional use their own skills to help you understand the material.

Blended

This method entails a combination of online and in-class study. The online to in-class ration will vary depending on course provider.

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Strengths for Digital Skills Experts

Communication

Creativity

Flexibility

Leadership

Listening

Having a good level of knowledge and an awareness of various software and technology is vital, but having these soft skills will also help you get ahead in your career in digital skills.

Numerical Ability

Technical Writing

Attention to Detail

Critical Thinking

Knowledge Networking

What Daily Tasks Do Digital Skills Professionals Do?

Due to the wide range of fields within digital skills, the tasks performed by professionals can vary significantly. However, the duties that come up frequently, regardless of specialisation, are:

Testing computers and networks
Maintaining software and hardware

Designing, deploying and maintaining IT infrastructure
Performing hardware troubleshooting

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There is no denying that the field of digital skills comes with many perks that can’t really be found in other fields. An increasing worldwide reliance on technology makes it a field that is both secure and fulfilling. If what you’re after is lifelong growth, competitive salaries and career satisfaction, then check out our digital skills courses and make a start right away!

What are you waiting for? Get started on your journey today.

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