The skills our sector needs

How much time do you have? *

Everything you tell us here is anonymous. We don't ask for your name, your organisation or your email anywhere in the survey itself, and we don't store your IP address or browser details alongside your answers. At the end of the full version you can choose to give us an email address - to enter the prize draw for a £50 Amazon voucher, or to hear about the findings. That is entirely optional, and it is the only point at which anything identifying is recorded. A draw entry is kept separately from your answers and cannot be traced back to what you told us. Your email is only ever attached to your response if you specifically ask us to contact you about the survey. The prize draw is open to company email addresses only - Gmail, Hotmail and other free or personal mailboxes cannot be entered. Results are reported as totals only and will inform INCA and SCTE research and a published paper. This survey is for people working in telecommunications: network operators, and the companies that build for or supply the industry. By continuing you confirm that you work in the industry, or represent a company within it. *

Are you answering as: *

Which best describes your organisation's main activity? *

Does your organisation also operate in any of these areas? (Select all that apply.)

Organisation size (headcount): *

Which part of the business is closest to your work? *

Region (nation / English region) *

Where are you in the network lifecycle right now? *

Which areas are hardest for you to recruit into right now? (Select up to 3.) *

Over the next 3-5 years, do you expect headcount in each area to grow, stay stable, or shrink? *

How do you currently fill skills gaps? (Select all that apply.) *

Roughly what share of your technical / engineering workforce is over 50? *

How significant is workforce ageing / succession as a risk to your organisation? *

Roughly what proportion of your technical / engineering workforce is female?

Roughly what proportion of your technical / engineering workforce is from an ethnic minority background?

Roughly what proportion of your technical / engineering workforce consider themselves disabled?

Which of these does your organisation actively monitor across its workforce? (Select all that apply.)

What consideration does your organisation give to gender balance? *

In the last 12 months, did your organisation fund or provide formal training / upskilling for staff? *

Roughly what did you spend on training per member of technical staff last year?

What stops you doing more training? (Select all that apply.) *

Where does suitable training simply not exist today? (Select all.) *

How well does the current education & apprenticeship system supply the people you need? *

How is AI changing your skills needs? *

Which roles do you expect AI to change most? (Select all that apply.)

Over 3-5 years, do you expect AI to increase or reduce your overall headcount? *

How interested would you be in shared or cooperative training provision organised across organisations (pooled cost, shared courses, common standards)? *

What would make shared training most useful to you? (Select all.) *

What best describes your current level? *

How long have you worked in this sector? *

Did you come into this sector from another industry? *

Which industry did you come from?

In the last 12 months, how much training or upskilling have you had? *

What gets in the way of you developing your skills? (Select all.) *

How do you prefer to learn? (Select all.) *

Which skills do you most want to build over the next few years? (Select up to 3.) *

Do you see a long-term future for yourself in this sector? *

How do you feel about AI's effect on your role? *

For each domain, rate two things: its importance to the sector in 3-5 years, and current capability. *

Sub-skill drill-down — expand each domain and score the same two axes. *

Where is the biggest future skills need in your view: purely technical, purely people / leadership, or the combination of both? *

In one or two sentences: what's the single biggest skills or training challenge facing our industry?

If the sector could build one capability in the next five years, which matters most? *

How optimistic are you about the sector's ability to close its skills gap by 2030? *

These last few questions help us see who the sector is made up of and where it is not reaching. Every one of them is optional, your answers stay anonymous, and they are only ever reported as totals - never individually.

Your gender

Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?

Your ethnic group

Do you have a physical or mental health condition or illness lasting or expected to last 12 months or more?

Your age

Would you like to stay involved? (Stored separately from your anonymous responses.)

Enter our prize draw for a £50 Amazon voucher?

Your email address