{"id":7187,"date":"2015-12-18T13:16:32","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T13:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7187"},"modified":"2015-12-18T13:16:32","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T13:16:32","slug":"star-wars-digital-revolution-is-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7187","title":{"rendered":"‘Star Wars’ digital revolution is coming"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Serious questions are being asked whether the UK is fully geared up to profit from the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Star Wars\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 digital revolution so eagerly being embraced by its economic competitors.<\/p>\n

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As the prospect of robots marching into the workplace, digitally connected machines, 3D printing, and autonomous vehicles grows ever closer, Unite questions if ministers are prepared for a world where 54 per cent of jobs in Europe are at risk of automation in the next two decades.<\/p>\n

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The union outlines 13 recommendations to ensure that the UK is up to digital speed in its briefing, A Digital New World \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Charter for Workers in UK Information Technology and Communications industries.<\/p>\n

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A key area where government is failing to invest significantly is small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), critical to the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s information technology and communications (ITC) sectors \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the UK is the only country in the G7 not to have a dedicated financial institution dealing with SME financing issues.<\/p>\n

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Public procurement policy with a total expenditure of \u00c2\u0141242 billion in 2013\/2014 is another area of concern, with the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stated aim of at least 25 per cent of procurement coming from SMEs.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite believes that the government should recognise the economic opportunities which are available to the UK economy in using the procurement procedure to purchase goods and services from ITC companies based here,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the briefing says.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is very apt that as people flock to the new Star Wars film, made at Pinewood studios with all that UK digital expertise, that we ask if the UK is ready for the challenges in this sector over the next decade,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite national officer for ITC Ian Tonks.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Unite briefing is aimed as a template to ensure that the UK does not fall behind its global digital competitors in this fast-moving industry environment,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe want to know whether \u00e2\u20ac\u0098the force\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is with government ministers on this issue.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The report produced by our ITC reps points the way forward and highlights the need for the UK to get in front on the issue of Industry 4.0 and the massive changes to the world of work anticipated by digital technology over the next few years,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 noted Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke.<\/p>\n

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The ITC sector in the UK employs about 700,000 directly with about 1.3 million support staff.<\/p>\n

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The full briefing is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serious questions are being asked whether the UK is fully geared up to profit from the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Star Wars\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 digital revolution so eagerly being embraced by its economic competitors.   As the prospect of robots marching into the workplace, digitally connected machines, 3D printing, and autonomous vehicles grows ever closer, Unite questions if ministers are prepared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[455,146],"wps_subtitle":"Is the UK ready?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7189,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7187\/revisions\/7189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}