Recently I attended a breakfast debate and the launch of a publication called ‘The UK: A leading digital nation’, a project between Matt Warman MP and Brands2Life – a digitally-led communications agency. The government are in the process of creating a digital strategy and in parallel to this, project experts were invited from technology, business and politics to put forward their thoughts on what they think will really help make the UK a leading digital nation. I was delighted to be one of those experts.

My quote in the publication. Image courtesy of Brands2Life ‘The UK: A leading digital nation?’

• Upskilling the nation with digital skills and to use new technology, with particular focus on young people and businesses.
• The provision of 10Mbps broadband for everyone.
• The digitisation of public services.
• How the process of changing laws and decision-making creates a challenge for getting the regulatory environment right, when tech innovation changes the sector.

At the event Matt Warman MP said that ‘infrastructure and skills must go hand-in-hand’. He said ‘skills are not just about coding but about preparing for a digital working life’. I recently read a piece of research that found UK businesses aren’t doing enough to upskill their current workforce, instead choosing to hire younger staff for their digital output. On the other side of the spectrum, despite their tech-savvy reputation it was also found that one in three 18-34 year-olds are worried about being left behind at work because they lack digital skills.

If Britain wants to be a leading digital nation we have to put time, effort and money into upskilling everyone, so they can survive in our new technology-driven world. The government has a big part to play in that. As my quote says, they need to show sustained leadership to tackle the three key barriers to digital inclusion: motivation, skills and access.

At the event Anthony Walker, deputy CEO at TechUK, said that ‘digital should make the world a better place: fix finances and bring everyone together’ and I agree. We all need to work together to make sure that can happen. With more and more services moving online – especially public services – most people need even the most basic of digital skills to get by.

For basic digital skills, Learn My Way is a great resource for people looking to begin their learning journey and if they want to talk to someone face-to-face they can easily locate their local UK online centre by using the search on our website. Our community partners are more than happy to help. To date we’ve supported over a whopping 1.8 million people to get online through the network and by 2020 we want to have helped even more.

Have a read of the ‘The UK: A leading digital nation’ report here to see what you think, but I believe that if everyone in the UK – public and private sectors, government, and the population themselves – commit to making sure every single person in the UK has even just the basic digital skills, then that’s a start to making sure we can become a truly leading digital nation.