Editor's note: a universal need for digital talent from companies and governments

“No,” said the TSMC executive decisively.

“No, no, no,” he added. “The solution is still far away.”

Not that the repetition was required to drive home the point; his own emphatic sense of pessimism had been clear enough from the first word. The question that prompted this downbeat reply from the world’s most advanced semiconductor foundry was:

“Are you confident that you’re starting to solve the digital skills shortage?”

Not that TSMC is alone. Every business leader at the industry event at which we met recently appeared to bemoan the same issue. The dearth of tech skills—from entry-level to advanced, and particularly among girls and women—is a core challenge facing almost every tech company worldwide. 

And that’s why it’s the theme of this edition of Transform, Huawei’s global thought leadership magazine. The skills required to maintain the ongoing innovation revolution are in continuously short supply. As the TSMC exec explained, “The tech industry is booming so everyone is fighting for the same specialized experts.”

This skills logjam produces a digitalization logjam with potentially damaging economic and societal impacts.

In this issue, Zambia’s Technology Minister, the Honorable Felix Mutati, told me that the “digitally illiterate” would be left behind: “If you want to build the future for yourselves, you’ve got to embrace technology. Whether you like it or not, digital is infectious. It is a bug without a cure. It will catch you.”

The minister said there was a fear of digital among some students and that Zambia was also urgently tackling teachers’ “inadequate” skills.

German entrepreneur Miriam Theobald agrees that educating the educators is critical. 

“Students will ask if education is relevant to them or not. Universities have to find answers for that. They’ll need to teach skills that are super relevant and can be applied immediately after graduation.”

Professor Pedro Santa-Clara, a Portuguese social entrepreneur and economist, pointed the finger at education systems more widely. He accused them of still being stuck in an 18th century assembly-line approach.

“There’s a mismatch between what the education system is producing and what is required,” he said. “We’ve succeeded in shutting down the two mechanisms that create quality and value in any industry, which are competition and innovation.”

Laurie Pearcey, Associate VP at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, insists that universities such as his are adapting rapidly: “ChatGPT caused a moment of existential panic among academics… But now, universities and schools are thinking about how we can embed this technology into our educational model. We need to cultivate future leaders who can use it as an enabler, rather than something to be scared of.”

David Atchoarena, until recently Director of UNESCO’s Institute for Lifelong Learning and now Executive Director at the World Health Organization (WHO) Academy, urged us not to neglect the power of inter-generational learning, passing knowledge and skills down from older workers to younger colleagues. In a conversation with the general manager of Huawei’s global training center, Jason Liu, they both agreed that developing the skill of learning autonomy was essential to enable constant reskilling and upskilling, regardless of age.

In Europe, where 2023 is officially the European Year of Skills, a Huawei-sponsored report by EY suggests a skills mismatch is as problematic as the skills shortage, with even ICT professionals often proving underqualified. That combined lack of skills is identified as the main barrier to investment.

One skill that perhaps cannot be taught is a dogged determination to learn. That’s what helped Doreen Mbhalati-Mashele transform herself from a grocery store clerk to the CEO of her own 500-person company.

Hers is just one of the many stories you’ll read in this month’s edition. We hear from academics, policymakers, industry leaders, and technologists: so there’s certainly no shortage of expertise to explore the skills challenge. We’ll likely need all of them, working together, to help turn that definitive “no” at the start of this note into, at least, a tentative “yes.”