In the first event at the NDCA’s new facility in Leamington Spa, the group unveiled plans to go beyond the talk with a big tent event to thrash out and address the issue.
Subscribe today for free
John Booth, managing director of Carbon3IT and the technical director of the NDCA, suggested there has been “lots of talk” about the market’s skill shortage but “very little action”.
To mark International Data Centre Day on March 26, the NDCA wants to bring together stakeholders from across the data centre market for a ‘big tent skills day’ that aims to realise ideas like creating a practical cross-discipline data centre engineering apprenticeship and degree option.
The academy can only work in collaboration with the sector,” Booth said. “We are providing training and education options for the sector and it has to be by the sector. You have to guide us to train tomorrow’s digital technicians.”
The NDCA’s event focused on the 'Data Centre of the Future'. Booth argued, however, that people entering the industry are being taught backwards-facing lessons, with little to no training courses on everything from liquid cooling and immersed computing to carbon accounting and regulatory compliance.
The Academy itself is nearing completion, featuring hands-on environments where the next generation of technicians and engineers can get to grips with technical training spaces.
However, courses teaching staff for data centres of the future need to be practical, the Academy’s technical director stressed, noting: “Would you want your car serviced by someone who had done all their training online?”
Booth also warned of the “two tribes approach” where the IT side of data centres doesn’t often align with the infrastructure implementation side of data centres.
“The code of conduct for data centres' first best practice says to establish an approval board containing representatives from all disciplines,” Booth explained. “That best practice has been in situ for 15 years, and yet I still go on sites and find a distinct separation between the facilities management and IT. There has to be greater integration.”
Beyond improving skilling opportunities and integration, Booth told attendees at the NDCA that the industry needs to make the next generation aware of the industry.
“We need to be more aware. We need to get out there doing more promotions at careers fairs,” Booth said. “Certain locations are doing this, but mostly in London.”
Booth warned that the failure to attract new staff is resulting in data centre operators poaching talent from one another, a practice he described as unsustainable as it spirals salary levels beyond unjustifiable levels.
Poaching in the data centre field has got to such a level in Europe that EU officials are clamping down on companies constructing data centres for violating no-poach agreements.
The critical skills shortage will require an increase in the industry’s workforce, with Booth citing 2023 figures that the industry requires three million staff by 2025 — a number he suggested that could now be even higher based on interest in AI.
The NDCA team are looking to help train the next generation, with Booth stressing its vendor-neutral status puts it ready to actively collaborate to ultimately benefit the industry.
RELATED STORIES
Nscale to invest £2bn in UK data centres for AI computing expansion
CoreWeave’s £1bn UK investment expands with new data centre
UK Gov launches ambitious plan to make UK 'irresistible' to AI firms
