Wherever you are in the world, discover how Scotland’s digital talent can benefit your business. Alastair Gillen, growth and inward investment manager at Scotland’s national skills agency, Skills Development Scotland explains the support available to help you access that talent.

Technological and societal disruptions are coming at us thick and fast. While we cannot predict the future, we can prepare for a future that is increasingly unpredictable.

Scotland’s national skills agency, Skills Development Scotland, has been leading a programme of work to understand what these changes mean for the workplace, and the skills that will be required for this. This future-focussed work is embedding innovation in our products and services to make sure Scotland’s citizens and businesses are prepared for this complex future.

Your gateway to the best talent on the planet

Skills Development Scotland is here to help businesses around the globe discover what Scotland’s talent can do for them.

Businesses already established here understand that people are our greatest asset and that our 2.8 million-strong workforce is one of the best trained, most reliable and cost-competitive labour forces in the world.

Investing in digital infrastructure and digital skills is a policy priority for the Scottish Government and is a dominant feature in response to the economic impact of the pandemic within its Programme for Government opens in a new window .

And through the Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review opens in a new window , the Scottish Government underlines the commitment for Scotland to be a global leader in digital infrastructure and skills.

Digital skills to match your needs

Covid-19 has fast-tracked the shift to digital and placed an even greater emphasis on a strong digital infrastructure and associated skills to capitalise on it. Homeworking is not a new concept but has become the norm for many operating models as businesses respond to the pandemic. It’s a model which industry tells us will soon become an integral part of working life.

Scotland, particularly across the Highlands and Islands region, has been at the forefront, over the last 15 years, of testing, supporting and adopting, multiple pioneering projects to embed a robust and sustainable remote-working approach.

Scotland has a leading role to play in shaping a future towards a more distributed working model. As companies rethink their corporate real estate footprint and engage a dispersed workforce through geographic skills hubs, they’ll need support to access the best talent without compromising their culture and organisational values.

Adapt, sustain and strengthen your business

Scotland, with its world-class universities and innovative further education colleges, has rightly developed the reputation for producing a talented digital workforce. This is further enhanced through Scottish Apprenticeships opens in a new window  which provide industry a work-based learning approach to developing and building the skills it requires.

With over 100 apprenticeship frameworks available from our oldest high school pupils through to Honours Degree-level, apprenticeships offer employers a reliable and effective way to upskill and retain its workforce.

J.P. Morgan champions Scotland’s apprentices

Though times are tough, thousands of employers in Scotland are supporting people through apprenticeships, developing new talent and gaining real business benefits.

For example, Graduate Apprenticeships opens in a new window  are helping finance giant J.P. Morgan to service its clients worldwide. While Dutch-owned tech firm, Celestia UK is building the skills it needs after taking on two apprentices to help grow its satellite antenna operations in Scotland, despite the pandemic.

J.P. Morgan, one of the world’s most successful financial institutions with a significant presence in Scotland, now has 55 Graduate Apprentices working at its tech centre of excellence in Glasgow’s financial services district.

Quite a jump in numbers from the original seven that started with the company in 2015, and that’s because, as Vice President Robbie Allan said: "J.P. Morgan believes apprentices are critical to increasing the number of quality software developers able to support our thousands of users worldwide."