{"id":21885,"date":"2018-08-01T13:50:51","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T13:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnet-training.com\/us\/?p=21885"},"modified":"2020-03-11T15:37:07","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T15:37:07","slug":"stemming-the-tide-of-data-centre-skills-shortages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnet-training.com\/us\/news\/stemming-the-tide-of-data-centre-skills-shortages\/","title":{"rendered":"STEMming the Tide of Data Center Skills Shortages"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNet Training’s Dr Terri Simpkin Helps to Shake the Candidate Tree Regarding Data Center Skills Shortages Talking with Future-tech<\/strong><\/p>\n

What do you want to be when you\u2019re older? It\u2019s a question many of us were asked during our early years at school. An astronaut, footballer, rockstar were and continue to be career choices for the young generations, seeking out fame and fortune. More recently, famous vloggers and social media sensations have no doubt made the sacred list.<\/p>\n

Yet how about data centers? How many of the professionals working in data centers today set out on that career path from the start?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an interesting question and one that Peter Hannaford, founder of specialist recruitment company Datacenter People often asks the audience when speaking at conferences. He believes the general unawareness of the industry and its significance doesn\u2019t help the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cdata centers are not a topic that are taught in schools and it\u2019s not often something that is a career choice,\u201d he says. \u201cAround 90 percent of the population haven\u2019t got a clue where data is stored. They know about the cloud but they don\u2019t have an idea that the data resides in a building somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

His company recently had to recruit a team of 20 people for a data center in the Netherlands. Over half the candidates came from the oil and gas sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are transferable skills from other industries,\u201d he adds. \u201cElectrical and mechanical engineers, nuclear engineers and submariners \u2013 these make for great data center technicians because they really understand what mission critical is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wake up call<\/strong>
\nSo how big is the problem? According to recent data from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Learning, skills shortages cost related businesses \u00a31.5 billion per year. To put that number into perspective, there is currently an estimated shortfall of 173,000 skilled workers annually across STEM industries, including data center and IT engineering.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, data from STEM Learning predicts that new roles could double over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

The organization spoke to HR directors at 400 STEM businesses in the UK. Overall, feedback revealed that recruitment is taking longer than expected, they are having to spend more on temporary staff, hiring at a lower level and training staff up, or even inflating salaries to attract talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese figures act as a wake up call \u2013 but the good news is that by acting now businesses can make a difference and help future-proof the UK economy,\u201d says Yvonne Baker, chief executive of STEM Learning.<\/p>\n

Shaking the candidate tree<\/strong>
\nSuch data should be taken seriously but what about data center specific stats, with even more detail beyond STEM? This is also part of the challenge, according to Dr Theresa Simpkin, higher and further education principal at CNet Training, which is focused on the data center sector globally.<\/p>\n

data center engineering has been a victim of its own success. The business has grown at such a phenomenal rate but as a hybrid sector, directly between IT, engineering and facilities management.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach one of those sectors, in themselves, have traditionally had skills and labour shortages for some time,\u201d says Simpkin. \u201cWhen you create a new sector from those core sectors, you are importing those issues. With such a rapid rate of expansion, we just haven\u2019t had the strategic capacity to keep up with the labour and skills and broader capability demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds: \u201cdata center engineering is still a very young sector \u2013 it has experienced the same sort of growth and journey to maturity that has taken more traditional industries centuries\u2026We are also standing in line behind a raft of other traditional, well known industries. They have been out there shaking the candidate tree for decades and they have a very well-crafted employer brand and offering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uncle Sam<\/strong>
\nWith the skills shortages well known it raises the question of what is the answer, if there is just one? An Uncle Sam \u201cI want you\u201d US military style recruitment poster put to one side, Baker believes that when it comes to cultivating STEM skills \u201cthe responsibility cannot lay solely at the feet of schools or government alone\u201d.<\/p>\n

STEM Learning works with businesses, schools and government on long-term, sustainable programmes and said it impacts 20,000 schools and more than two million students per year.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Simpkin says it\u2019s important to get the interest of children when they are young. \u201cThe thing is you need get to children really early and particularly girls\u2026So we need to get in at the early stage. We\u2019re not talking 15 and 16 \u2013 we\u2019ve missed the boat by then.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the top level, the government has announced \u00a3500 million of new funding for employer-designed Technical Education and \u00a3170 million investment to establish Institutes of Technology in every English region to deliver higher level STEM skills.<\/p>\n

STEM schools<\/strong>
\nSome schools are taking matters into their own hands. Evendons Primary School opened as the first STEM school in Wokingham in 2014. It started out with a vision to be strong in the four core STEM subjects \u2013 science, technology, engineering and maths.<\/p>\n

The idea is get children interested and engaged in how things are built and function, with engagement with industry and businesses beyond the school. For example, an engineer from the oil & gas industry recently gave a talk, to give the pupils an awareness of such industries and what goes into them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to introduce basic engineering principles into lessons every day,\u201d says headteacher Patrick Pritchett. \u201cWe also try to bring the grounds into the curriculum, to give the children a first-hand experience of the natural world.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the initiatives organised by the school is a yearly STEM Fair, sponsored by Future-tech. The idea is to give children the freedom to explore the school\u2019s projects, while rubbing shoulders with children from other schools, college and university students and local professionals. Essentially networking and encouraging children to broaden their outlook from an early age.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are moving into an AI age, where many jobs previously done by people will be done by machines,\u201d said James Wilman, CEO of Future-tech\u201d Although AI is good at certain types of task, being truly creative and solving problems with new and innovative solutions is innately human.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cAs humanity\u2019s challenges become more and more complex, responsibility is going to fall on the engineers, scientists and mathematicians of the future to solve them. Therefore, we need the children and parents of today to understand the value of these fields of study. We need to make sure younger generations are equipped with the right education and STEM skills. This will provide them with opportunities in the integrated AI world to come and ensure critical infrastructure industries have creative and talented people to drive their continuous improvement and evolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/stemming-the-tide-of-data-centre-skills-shortages\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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