Digital and Professional Skills for Industry

This study is a collaboration between University of Southampton researchers from the Software Sustainability Institute (SSI), based in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, and the Faculty of Social Sciences. It is funded by the SSI and is in collaboration with the DiRAC high performance computing facility.

four people working on computers around a desk

About the study

Questions regarding the efficacy of Higher Education (HE) in preparing software engineering graduates for industry are the subject of ongoing debate. Decades of studies have shown that industry practitioners consider that graduates could be better equipped, both in terms of up-to-date technological skills in programming, and professional skills – e.g., team working, critical thinking, problem solving, conflict resolution – for operating effectively within an organisational setting. In response, HE has tried to recalibrate its offering, attempting to better align what it teaches with what industry demands, and in places, adopting industry training practices such as hands-on project experience. Nevertheless, recent literature continues to paint a picture of a mismatch between what universities are providing and what industry needs. 

However, the focus has tended to be on industry’s experience with graduate (first and master’s degree) skill gaps, less often than the skill gaps that exist in the research graduate (PhD and postdoctoral) workforce or those with non-traditional career paths. In addition, understanding of skills gaps in particular fields such as software engineering is less clear and digital skills evolve at pace. 

To address the pressing issue of graduate skill gaps in software engineering, we want to talk to employers and policy and practice stakeholders to understand their experiences and to clarify what skills are missing amongst graduates and those new to industry, including research graduates. We also want to talk to graduates and those workers new to industry about their experiences of going into industry and how they understand skills gaps. We will work with expert trainers within the SSI to develop a training programme to meet these needs and will consult with our participants to get critical feedback on the content of that training. The SSI will then run training courses in partnership with industry to deliver these skills.

We will:

  • Understand employers, stakeholders, and graduates/those new to industry’s experiences of skills gaps in the graduate workforce.
  • Ascertain the nature and scope of any skills gaps, i.e., whether they are technical or ‘professional’ skills, or a combination of the two.
  • Gain insights into the causes of these skills gaps, be they related to HE’s lack of understanding of industry, or a sufficient focus on work readiness, or other, such as lack of investment from industry.
  • Understand what sort of training could be done to address any skills gaps, and the utility of approaches such as work shadowing or work placements.
  • Develop a training programme that works towards addressing the skill gaps that are identified from the research. 

What we will do

We will conduct 20-24 semi-structured online interviews with people who have experience of software engineer graduates and those new to industry:

  • Representatives from a range of employer organisations
  • Policy and practice stakeholders
  • Graduates who have made the transition from academia to industry

We are looking to speak to a range of employer organisations in the technology sector in fields including hardware and modelling, global technology, and national infrastructure. Whilst the study is UK focused it will be open to non-UK based organisations and participants. In each organisation, we will be looking to interview 1-2 individuals in different roles including for example line managers, senior managers, HR professionals, and graduates/those new to industry. In addition, we will also include a small number of stakeholder/key informant interviews with industry experts. Having identified a long list of organisations and individuals who we would like to approach, we will seek to recruit participants. 

Interviews will be transcribed and analysed to reveal participants’ perceptions of skill gaps. Findings will inform the development of a training package that can address these gaps. This package will be shared with participants for their feedback before SSI runs the programme in partnership with industry.

The research team