UK senior marketers facing digital skills deficit

Training deficit

• ‘Digital Vision, living on the cutting edge’ showed that a majority of marketers aged 55 and over received zero training in the two years leading up to the pandemic.

• This has generated concerns that senior marketers may not be equipped with the skills required to keep pace with a fast-evolving sector.

• Ways of working are being revolutionised by a widespread shift to digital but much of this potential risks being missed as many of those in charge of managing the transition are not fully equipped for the task.

• A yawning training deficit means a worrying 35% of marketers have attended no training courses, events or conferences in the past two years.

• This lack of participation becomes increasingly acute with age with 44% of 45-54-year-olds absent from any form of external or internal self-improvement initiatives – rising to 74% among those aged 65 and up.

• By contrast, the equivalent proportion of 16-24-year-olds who have gone without training stands at just 7%.

• This blind spot meant 41% of senior marketers did not participate in training, a lower participation rate than any other group by seniority.

Digital skills gap poses risk to organisations

• Low levels of training contradict an acknowledgement by 71% of marketers that young people outclass their older peers in terms of their digital marketing.

• A further 44% of respondents fret that poorly trained marketers could be a liability to their companies.

• While senior marketers coast junior staff continue to make headway at improving their skill set in key areas such as data and analytics, social media and search engine optimisation (SEO).

• In summation, the CIM believes we have allowed a situation to develop where specialists have become ever more knowledgeable in their narrow field of expertise while higher-ups see their knowledge base stagnate or even contract.