By Debra Tracy, Director, Direct Partners Training Provider
Something interesting has been happening in our enquiry inbox this year. Since April, 98.2% of the people contacting us about our funded tech apprenticeships have been employees, already in a job and looking to build their skills in areas like data analytics and digital marketing. Just 1.8% have been employers. Employees aren’t waiting for their organisations to lead on skills. They’re getting on with it themselves.
We don’t think that ratio says anything negative about Scottish businesses. What it tells us is that the appetite for learning already exists inside most organisations, and that many employers haven’t noticed it yet.
Staff Aren’t Waiting to Be Asked
Our experience reflects a wider national picture. This summer, Ipsos surveyed 25,000 workers across the UK for Deloitte, covering a nationally representative range of industries, roles and regions. The results were striking. Between them, British workers are spending close to £1bn a year of their own money on AI tools for their jobs.
Around one in six pay for at least one tool themselves, and 31% use generative AI without telling their employer. Almost half of those using generative AI at work say they have never had formal training on how to use it safely and effectively
A separate study by SD Worx found that just 28% of UK employees had been to AI training provided by their employer in the previous year.
In my view, people can see where work is heading and they’re trying to keep up. Most are doing it on their own, in their own time, and often with their own money.
Why AI Always Comes Back to Data
There’s a reason so much of the demand we see is for Data Analytics. Every business conversation about AI eventually arrives at the same question: is our data any good?
AI tools are only as useful as the information they’re given. In a recent survey of senior leaders in UK professional services, poor data quality was named the biggest single barrier to effective AI adoption, ahead of system integration, cost, and a lack of internal capability. A spreadsheet full of duplicates, gaps and inconsistent formats doesn’t become useful just because you point a clever tool at it. Someone still needs to know how to find the right data, clean it, analyse it and explain what it means to the people making decisions.
Those are exactly the skills Scottish employers say they’re short of. The latest Employer Skills Survey for Scotland found that over half of skill-shortage vacancies were at least partly caused by a lack of complex analytical skills, up from 46% in 2022. Meanwhile, the Open University’s Business Barometer reports that 56% of Scottish organisations are currently experiencing a skills shortage.
As our Data Analytics Assessor Kaden Stannard wrote in these pages recently, the strength of work-based learning is that people practise on their own team’s figures, so the skill sticks. An employee who learns to tidy up and analyse the data your business already holds is laying the groundwork for AI, whether or not anyone has called it that yet.
Marketing Is Changing Just as Quickly
Digital Marketing is our other area of high demand, and the reasons are similar. Marketing is one of the first places businesses are putting AI to work. In ScotlandIS’s latest industry survey, Scottish technology firms said they plan to expand AI across several functions in the coming year, with marketing (55%) among the areas of strongest growth.
Search, content, advertising and reporting are all shifting at once, and the people doing that work day to day are the first to feel it. It’s no surprise they’re looking for structured, recognised training rather than relying on tips picked up from colleagues.
So What Is the Trick Being Missed?
When an employee comes to us, their employer still needs to be on board. We need a role where the learning fits the day job and a manager willing to act as a mentor. In most cases, once employers understand what’s involved, they’re happy to support it. But the conversation almost always starts with the employee, one person at a time.
The trick being missed is turning that individual enthusiasm into a plan. If one person in your finance team is teaching themselves to build dashboards, there’s a good chance others would like to do the same. If someone in your marketing team is paying for AI tools out of their own pocket, that tells you where your business is heading. It’s also a risk worth managing if it’s happening without any guidance.
In Scotland, much of this training can be funded. Modern Apprenticeships in areas such as Data Analytics and Digital Marketing are supported by Skills Development Scotland and are open to existing staff, not only new starters. More often than not, cost isn’t the real barrier. Awareness is.
A good starting point is simply asking your team what they’re already learning, and where they think better data or smarter tools would save them time. The answers are often surprising, and they usually point to the people who are ready to lead the change.
Backing the People Who Are Already Ready
The businesses that get the most from AI over the next few years won’t necessarily be the ones that buy the most tools. They’ll be the ones whose people understand their own data and know how to use it well. In many Scottish workplaces, those people are already putting their hands up. The question is whether their employers will notice in time to back them.
Direct Partners is an award-winning training provider based in Edinburgh, delivering SDS-funded tech qualifications across Scotland. To find out more or discuss a partnership, visit directpartners.co.uk or call 0131 600 0820.
