New DCF report calls for a coordinated push to raise awareness of telecoms careers among students, job seekers and career changers

The Digital Connectivity Forum (DCF) today publishes Expanding the Network: Understanding the barriers to entering the digital connectivity sector, a new piece of work examining reports of an emerging skills gap, the state of play within telecoms diversity, and the barriers and incentives for attracting and retaining the talent needed to build and maintain the networks on which the country depends.

One of the report’s key findings is that there is a general lack of awareness and understanding of telecoms as a career destination, leading to one of its key recommendations for greater work to be undertaken with government and relevant stakeholders to build and distribute key information about the sector.

Third party reports reviewed by the Digital Connectivity Forum as part of the report found that the sector faces an approaching skills cliff. The report cites estimates that up to 200,000 engineers could leave the UK telecoms workforce by 2030. This, coupled with primary research which found that young talent which the sector most needs to attract were disproportionately likely to say that they simply don’t know enough about the sector to form a viewpoint, suggests that to create a sector that can support its needs, telecoms will need to invest in its branding, outreach and visibility if it is to meet these demands.

The report drew on several key research strands. Secondary desk research, alongside primary research that involved speaking to key demographics including 18–25-year-olds and those still in education, alongside established career professionals and job seekers. The findings of which challenges these different cohorts face, the perceptions and levels of awareness they hold, and what helps them enter and remain in the sector offered interesting glimpses into what telecoms can do to support its present and future workforce.

Crucially, the research finds that the sector’s recruitment problem is not that people dislike the telecoms sector, it is that they know little about it. Among young people and students surveyed, 58% held a positive view of the sector and just 3% a negative one, while 38% described themselves as neutral or unaware. When asked whether they felt represented in the sector, 47% said they did not know enough about it to comment at all. As the report puts it, a sector people actively dislike faces a long and uncertain task in changing minds; a sector people have simply not heard of faces a still sizeable challenge, but a simpler one.

The report also identifies the recruitment process itself as the single most fixable barrier. Uncertainty of how and to what extent AI is used during the recruitment process was the most frequently raised concern across all cohorts interviewed. As a result, greater transparency about how and where AI is used represents a quick way to build trust with candidates. Alongside guaranteed notification of when candidates are unsuccessful.

Finally, and most hearteningly, the report found that much of what the sector needs is already working somewhere within it. The report flags multiple examples of entry level opportunities, apprenticeship schemes, returnships and inclusive hiring practices already being undertaken by companies in UK telecoms.

The DCF’s conclusion is therefore that the task is less about invention than about targeting and scaling what already exists and reaching people across all life stages and roles with the information they need to make an informed and aware choice about telecoms as a career.

Expanding the Network closes with practical recommendations across three audiences. It asks industry and employers to:

• Commit to transparency over how and where AI is used in recruitment.
• Publish pay ranges with advertised roles.
• Provide feedback or an outcome to every applicant.
• Move toward skills-based hiring where appropriate.
• Make progression pathways visible and invest in management training.

It tasks the DCF itself to explore:

• The creation of a shareable career’s framework covering the full breadth of technical and non-technical telecoms roles.
• Producing educational materials pitched at each life stage.
• Establishing shared best practice on company culture.

and it asks Government to:

• Disaggregate telecommunications within official digital sector workforce statistics to help the industry baseline its progress.
• Reflect telecoms pathways explicitly in National Careers Service and Skills England career maps.
• Upskill Jobcentre Plus advisers on the telecoms sector.
• Make employer-delivered returnships eligible for skills funding on the same basis as apprenticeships.
• Extend AI Skills Boost explicitly to mid-career and over-50 workers.

Lindsey Fussell, Digital Connectivity Forum Chair said:

“The new report from the Digital Connectivity Forum examines claims of skills gaps emerging across the connectivity sector. It also asks whether the telecoms sector is open and accessible to everyone who might want to build a career in it – exploring this question through direct conversation with young people and professionals as well as through review of existing research. The recommendations that follow are practical and actionable. These include the need for a clearer, shared picture of the careers offered by the sector and where they lead, and better recognition of telecoms within the national careers and skills landscape. None of that will be possible through any one organisation acting alone. The Digital Connectivity Forum looks forward to working with industry, Government and partners across the sector to take this forward.”