That is why I advocated that people who are truly interested in AI and coding should seek out apprenticeship opportunities instead of heading to university.
Apprenticeships are win-win for both companies and the apprentices themselves. Not only can apprentices earn whilst they learn, hands-on training allows them to put theory into practice as well as grow in confidence in a working environment. It provides an excellent start to a working career and removes many barriers to entry. The employer on the other hand, gets the opportunity to have people start on-the-job learning straight-away and tailor skill sets. Apprenticeships can also increase productivity, increase job satisfaction and retention, and of course reduce recruitment costs. In addition, the problem of debt from a university is avoided altogether.
Yes, university will continue to play an important role in many people’s lives and indeed in the development of the tech industry, but it’s become clear to me that the industry needs to be far more open to taking on apprentices in order to fill the skills gap, particularly in terms of digital transformation and the deployment of leading technologies such as AI. With 5G just down the road, AI will have a transformative effect on the rollout of new services, network and business operations, and the way in which every one of us interacts with technology.
To prove my point, I was delighted to read the recent Business Today article “Apple CEO Tim Cook says 4-year degree not necessary for coding,” about 350 scholarship winners who will be attending Apple’s annual WWDC event next month. In this article, Cook was quoted as saying, "I don't think a four year degree is necessary to be proficient at coding. I think that's an old, traditional view. What we found out is that if we can get coding in the early grades and have a progression of difficulty over the tenure of somebody's high school years, by the time you graduate kids … they're already writing apps that could be put on the App Store,"
It is good to see that it is not only Apple that is taking this approach, but telcos to need to do the same. Some already are – BT recently announced that it has created more than 1,600 apprenticeships and graduate jobs to add to its 80,000+ UK workforce. Over one fifth of those will be based at BT’s world-renowned labs at Adastral Park, which plays a leading role in its development of AI.
However, for AI development and deployment to be successful, and for the telecom industry to really harness its potential, it must ensure that AI and coding is accessible to all. As an industry we need to democratize AI by ensuring the right tools are in place as well as the right educational and apprenticeship programs. We also need to develop a culture of innovation and creativity and get away from creating algorithms for algorithm sake. We need to have people who think differently and address the crucial business problems we face today. Moreover, we need to take this thinking further and not only make this about people entering the telecoms business, but we also need to ensure we have robust plans in place to retrain our workforce for the future.
