Reliable information on Scotland’s digital technologies sector, it’s performance, needs and emerging opportunities is hard to get by. Official statistics struggle to keep up with our fast moving industry and more responsive surveys often cover only the UK as a whole but do not provide Scotland specific data. The Scottish Technology Industry Survey is a crucial contribution to filling this information gap.
For nearly 15 years, it has been conducted annually by ScotlandIS, the membership and cluster management organisation for Scotland’s digital technologies industry. Response collection for the 2020 edition has just started. It surveys not only ScotlandIS members but is open to all digital technologies related businesses with a presence in Scotland.
The survey reports, published usually in April, provide information on the sector’s performance during the past year, expected opportunities and challenges as well details on skills requirements for the year ahead, all specifically for Scotland.
This information is sought after by individual companies and investors in the digital technologies sector and beyond to inform business and investment decisions. The results are also being used by government, public sector and education organisations to shape policies and initiatives in support of digital technologies companies and employers. To name just a few examples:
- Data on key export markets for our sector fed into Scottish Government’s Export Growth Plan published in spring 2019, which includes actions to support the export performance of digital tech companies.
- Survey responses on skills demand and recruitment challenges in our industry have been used for a number of years by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) for their digital tech labour market intelligence reports. These reports inform which skills development programmes SDS develops and invests in.
- Some universities have used skills data from the survey reports to develop Graduate Apprenticeship programmes that meet industry demand.
The Scottish Technology Industry Survey also helps to showcase the sector the general public as it is being reported on by a variety of media outlets every year, including BBC Good Morning Scotland, BBC News, Herald Scotland, The Scotsman and a number of business and technology focused publications.
The strength of the survey is that it’s completed by a broad cross-section of digital technologies companies with offices in Scotland that provide their valuable input.
Please participate in the survey now to make the results as robust as possible: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/SISSurvey2020
It only takes about 10 minutes and you will receive a copy of the report once it’s ready.