Demand for geospatial skills: Report for the Geospatial Commission
Report by Frontier Economics analysing the demand for geospatial skills in the UK
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The UK has globally recognised geospatial expertise, and is independently ranked second in the world for ‘geospatial readiness’. To achieve our vision we must develop more people with the right skills and tools to work with location data, across organisations and sectors, to meet the UK’s future needs and support global development.
Frontier Economics was commissioned to develop analysis of the geospatial labour market, to help us build our understanding of the demand for geospatial skills. This report builds on the ‘Dynamics of data science skills’ report by the Royal Society to form a greater understanding of the geospatial ecosystem. It is a starting basis for understanding the demand for geospatial skills in the UK. This report will inform the Geospatial Commission’s future work on geospatial skills.
Key findings
Geospatial skills are evolving from a niche skill-set to a wider ecosystem of data and digital skills, cutting across sectors and roles. There is significant global demand for these wider data skills that is outstripping supply.
The Demand for Geospatial Skills Report, and subsequent engagement, has helped us build a clearer understanding of demand in this market. In particular, we note that:
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In some sectors there is demand for core geospatial skills which is being clearly expressed. This is consistent with our Data Market Study which indicated that the geospatial ecosystem is growing. 55% of the geospatial firms that identified as being geospatial were incorporated between 2009 and 2019, with the average annual increase of the number of all firms being 8% over this period.
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In some sectors there is demand for core geospatial skills that is not being clearly expressed, with employers and recruiters not using the standard industry language when recruiting geospatial roles. This can create a disconnect between demand and supply.
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Some sectors where we would have expected to identify a high demand for geospatial skills have not fully realised the business opportunities of using location data and we have therefore seen lower than expected demand for geospatial skills.
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There is clear demand for wider data skills that are critical to producing, managing and using location data. This reflects broader global demand for data skills. Improving this skills base in the UK is an ongoing government priority that is set out in the National Data Strategy.
These observations illustrate the complexity in the geospatial ecosystem, including challenges that relate to demand and supply, as well as digital skills and core geospatial skills. These issues cannot be taken in isolation, given the links between demand and supply. However, the issues identified through the report and subsequent conversations will help to inform our future work in this space.