In the light of growing demand for its products and services – taking its current turnover beyond pre-pandemic levels – the digital learning and assessment specialist, eCom Scotland is continuing growing its investment in skilled digital skills professionals.
While not all its digital skills professionals are based in Scotland, eCom’s Managing Director, Wendy Edie, said, “We’re creating stable, good quality jobs – offering a strong career path for digital skills specialists during both the pandemic and the current skills shortage to meet the increasing demand from the emerging digital technology sector.”
According to a Scottish Government report – ‘A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world’ – published in March this year, Scotland’s digital technology sector contributes some £7.5bn to Scotland’s gross value added (GVA). The ScotlandIS Technology Industry Survey 2020 states that this sector, of some 9,500 firms, employs some 100,000 people across the Scottish economy but there is demand for some 7,000 digital skills professionals to join the sector each year in addition to the 5,000 or so which already join the sector annually.
Agreeing that she would like to see more people joining this sector, Wendy Edie – who is also a member of ScotlandIS’s Strategic Skills Board – commented, “In the last six weeks, eCom has been working with six new organisations, each of which have launched new learning environments. These learning environments are driving – and will continue to realise – such competitive advantage within their respective organisations that we’re not allowed to discuss any of the details.
“Being a trusted provider creates for us a unique business relationship, which is much stronger and deeper than a vendor relationship ever can be. As a trusted provider we’re able to offer support and consultancy from our experience and expertise.
“Obviously, it’s a challenge to promote all our capabilities while not being able to tell about everything we do. These amazing stories of digital learning transformation, including international delivery, are key messages we want to covey as a growing, innovative business.”
eCom is just one example – from the digital learning sector – of the Scotland-based technology firms that, according to a recent CBI Scotland study, adding some £25bn to the Scottish economy over the next decade.
This continuing growth in demand that eCom is experiencing – made manifest through increasing both business and headcount – is helping eCom to play its part in Scotland’s digital technology sector being the fourth largest of Scotland’s export sectors, exporting over £3.3bn of goods and services annually.
“At present, some 53% of eCom’s annual revenue is generated outside the UK, with a further eight per cent coming from sales to organisations in England,” revealed Wendy. “We have clients from the USA and Canada to the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent – and we’re investigating expanding our international operations by opening up markets in southern Africa.”