You may have noticed that your Spotify artist suggestions are tailored to your recent listening history, your phone has sent you a push notification reminding you to send a birthday card to a family member or that you rely on your Google Home or Alexa device to tell you when your dinner has finished cooking. These are all examples of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, which data scientists and programmers are able to develop to support our everyday lives.
Last year, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) along with the Office for AI (OAI) joined forces with the Office for Students, universities and industry partners to create a fund of up to £24 million to increase the number of highly-skilled workers in data science and AI roles.
In this blog post, we hear from Office for Students’ Helen Embleton on the new postgraduate conversion courses.
The pandemic has brought challenges of its own which has provided the tech sector with further development opportunities to connect colleagues and friends, track infection rates and to provide lifestyle and entertainment opportunities while Covid-19 restrictions have been in force.
The opportunities for innovation presented during the pandemic are just a few ways that can help to achieve government’s aim to make the "UK a world-leading digital economy that works for everyone". In the UK’s Digital Strategy, it is predicted that within 20 years, over 90% of jobs will require some element of digital skills. Moreover, the current skills gap in the UK is costing businesses £2 billion a year.
Last autumn, the Office for Students (OfS) delivered funding for 18 different universities across England to support the development of new AI and data science postgraduate conversion courses.
The courses are expected to create at least 2500 graduates. The funding also includes £10 million to support 1,000 scholarships worth £10,000 each, to increase diversity and attract students from backgrounds underrepresented in these industries, particularly Black, women and disabled students.
Recruitment figures from the first student intake in autumn 2020 indicate that diversity is improving. Over one in five (22%) of the total student intake were awarded scholarships. Of these, 76% of scholarship students were women, nearly half (45%) were Black students and almost a quarter (24%) were disabled students.
The courses are widespread, with participating universities situated across England to support students in underrepresented areas. Data shows 70% of total students and 84% of scholarship students were studying on courses based outside of London and the South East to cultivate tech talent across the country and encourage strong relationships with tech businesses and start-ups within local regions.
The government’s National Data Strategy has highlighted the importance of data science to the wider economy. As the Strategy states, “we can harness data as part of struggles to tackle bias and exclusion”. Data can be used to “hold a mirror up to society” to create transparency, improve our understanding of societal issues and create a fairer society for all. Within industry, improved data literacy can help drive innovation and productivity. Data-literate individuals are also more likely to benefit from and contribute to the increasingly data-rich environments they live and work in.
It is becoming increasingly likely that we will change careers multiple times across our lifetimes, due to a variety of different factors, including changing ambitions, available career openings, flexible working patterns that accommodate caring responsibilities, and opportunities to work abroad.
The courses are unique as they offer flexible learning opportunities for students who are likely to have other work, caring responsibilities or mature students who may be considering retraining or upskilling for a new career. Paid work placements are also included to make these transitions more feasible for learners of different ages and stages of their lives. Universities and employers are working closely to ensure these placements continue to provide a valuable experience for students in a way that keeps them safe during the pandemic, with many adapting their offering online or delivering theory-based learning in the earlier course stages to account for time working from home.
The courses are in their primary stages of their delivery, building upon previous learnings. In 2015, we piloted an Engineering Conversion Course programme with some of the universities involved in the Postgraduate Conversion Course programme such as Birkbeck, University of Salford and Solent University, among others. The evaluation put together case studies from these higher education providers which highlight huge demand for courses with recruitment figures exceeded in most cases.
Birkbeck found that, on average, conversion course students completed better projects than cognate courses, which they consider may be a result of the heightened motivation of students who viewed the courses as a stepping stone to a better career. This demonstrates the positive benefits of encouraging students from all backgrounds to follow their ambitions and to put new skills and careers incentives at the fore of their educational experience. For example, the graduates that were successful had studied courses including product design, chemistry and a medical-based degree. The new courses intend to build on this to encourage recruits from non-STEM routes, including those who have studied languages, art and English at undergraduate level.
Despite a challenging year, the new courses present a hopeful start to 2021. With a new cohort having begun this January, we look forward to hearing more success stories and will keep in close contact with universities to learn from the students’ experiences to help inform course development and delivery.
I encourage those who are interested to find out more on the Office for Students’ website or contact us using via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn with the hashtag #JoinYourAIFuture. Applications can be made directly through the universities via links on the webpages.
]]>As government-commissioned research has found, digital skills are a near-universal requirement, with over 75% of job openings requesting digital skills at all levels.
To address digital skills challenges, DCMS launched the Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund in 2019 in partnership with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Lancashire Local Digital Skills Partnership. The £3 million pilot has to date funded 19 projects over two rounds, supporting over 740 Greater Manchester and Lancashire residents.
The projects provide training in specialist digital skills to help people in low-paid, low-skilled roles as well as career changers, work returners, and underrepresented groups move into digital roles.
In this blog post, we look at the five successful projects from the Fund’s first round, predominantly based in Greater Manchester. The second round of funding, announced in June 2020, is supporting a further 14 projects, six of which are based in Lancashire and two spanning both regions. Following the Prime Minister’s speech on plans to transform the training and skills system, a third round of funding for the Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund has been announced to support a further nine projects.
This ambitious Fund is encouraging local employers and training providers to form partnerships to co-design and co-deliver short, bespoke, and innovative skills courses to ensure provision meets local and industry demand.
Generation’s AWS re/Start training programme is one of the five successful programmes who received funding in round one of the Fund. The 12-week bootcamp programme was developed in collaboration with Amazon Web Services and delivered with the Prince’s Trust to prepare young adults, aged 18-29, who faced barriers to employment, for entry-level roles in Cloud Computing. All learners have also received mentorship throughout their training to support them thrive in their future careers.
QA, another successful organisation from the Fund’s first round, is working closely with its employer partner UKFast to train 20 applicants through their 12-week skills programme. By the end of the programme applicants will leave as DevOps engineers, a role that is notoriously difficult to fill across the UK. Learners have also benefited from weekly personal development sessions to support their transition into employment.
The Fund is not only about fostering synergies between employers and training providers but also, importantly, about the partnership DCMS has formed with Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to ensure the delivery model meets local needs.
One of the biggest challenges cited by Greater Manchester businesses is access to digitally-skilled talent, particularly in software development, big data, cyber security and content creation. The Fast Track Fund allows GMCA to respond to a key challenge set out in its Local Industrial Strategy, namely the need to work with employers to develop new models to grow skilled talent and open up pathways for a diverse range of people into Manchester’s key growth industries.
In Lancashire, a significant proportion of the digital workforce is ageing, with a very small percentage in the 18 to 24 age bracket. Specialist digital skills are of particular importance to ensure Lancashire businesses can drive digital innovation and be at the forefront of the digital revolution. Hard-to-fill vacancies are fairly common in the digital sector and Lancashire is no exception to this.
Recognising the importance of broadening pathways to the digital sector, the Fund is supporting programmes who are actively working to diversify the talent pipeline to offer opportunities to underrepresented groups.
Indeed, diverse teams are not only more innovative, but also perform financially better compared to their peers. Further, within the digital and tech sector, diverse teams reduce the risk of biases being built into tech products, with wider social and economic consequences.
Tech Returners, with the help of the Fund, is supporting those seeking to return to work with both technical digital training and confidence-building through their ‘Your Return To Tech Programme’.’ programme. The programme is promoting gender diversity through removing barriers that returners of all ages, genders, and life circumstances face after a career break.
Working with a range of local partners, the successful projects have demonstrated the importance of community-based engagement to identify residents who are most in need of support and help them find local employment.
For example, the Fund is supporting Tech Manchester, an organisation working in partnership with UKFast to improve gender and BAME diversity in technical roles through training those that self-identify as women and non-binary in the operating system Linux. The programme is supporting residents in some of the most deprived areas in England, working closely with local community education partners to promote social inclusion.
We Are Digital, another organisation the Fund is supporting, is working with councils, housing associations, charities, corporates and central government to empower local residents through digital training and to address the challenge of in-work poverty. The programme will support participants into Digital Marketing whilst providing a focus on soft skills, mentorship, job shadowing as well as technical skills training.
All projects have been able to continue delivery virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic, while building positive community spirit during this challenging time.
Tech Manchester, for example, created a further 12-week programme of technical, pastoral and careers support during lockdown, and educated learners on the value of digital skills in this new climate.
We Are Digital provided learners with the necessary kit and connectivity to facilitate online delivery. They also made courses more flexible, to allow learners to manage childcare and other demands. Students were able to switch to evening classes and to speak to each other outside of lesson time on dedicated social channels.
Boosting the skills of our workforce will drive forward our economic and social recovery. Government is investing in programmes such as the Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund to develop people’s digital skills to provide them with new opportunities and find better quality employment.
]]>For more information on the Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund and the successful projects, please see here.
In this blog post we hear from Maggie Philbin OBE, TeenTech’s Co-Founder and CEO, on their impactful work with young people across the country.
Our collaboration with DCMS began with a keynote I gave at a government conference. It is no surprise that I planned to talk about TeenTech and the work we’re doing to identify, inspire, and nurture young talent. I shared stories about the tripwires young people experience and effective ways to remove them.
In case you only know me from my wild predictions about the future on 'Tomorrow’s World', TeenTech is an organisation I co-founded over ten years ago. It is now a charity working with thousands of young people across the UK.
Following this keynote, we were delighted to work with Claire Donaldson of the National Data Strategy at DCMS, Holly Ellis from the Government Digital Service, and Gary Coyle, Head of the Local Digital Skills Partnerships at DCMS, who took the trouble to see our work.
All our initiatives spring from a determination to give all young people – no matter their social background, gender or ethnicity – the opportunity to access networks and support that sets them up for success in contemporary industry.
Our delivery model is a community-driven partnership approach, supporting the development of localised infrastructure for continued engagement with young people. We help companies bring to life the breadth and depth of opportunities within their sector and translate complex subjects into engaging activities.
Our programmes exist to make a difference and help young people thrive. We have worked with over 40,000 young people face to face, and many, many more through our teacher resources. But we don’t do this on our own. We work with over 300 companies and 3000 volunteers, as well as councils, universities, and colleges. Collaboration is the only way to shift the dial. Indeed, TeenTech is growing and we always need more volunteers!
We feel proud to work with local councils on strategies to help school communities, for example the East Hampshire Council, where a new technology park is in the works. The Council wanted to make sure jobs go to local talent, so we developed a three-year programme of activity for local schools, and we are now entering into our second year.
People talk blithely about developing and cultivating confidence, communication skills, and creative thinking. But these things cannot be addressed with one-off engagements. We believe we can shift thinking over a three- to five-year time frame in a school community, which is why we provide students with a series of ongoing interventions throughout their school career.
The story of Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton demonstrates how impact rapidly grows. They started with ten pupils attending our London Festival. After two years of starting the TeenTech Awards at the Academy, they noticed a substantial increase in the number of students taking GCSE Computer Science as their first-choice subject.
Teacher Sumair Mohammed says, “Before we did the programme there were only 12 students in our CS class – now the majority of Year 9 students select the subject.” Beyond this, Sumair credits TeenTech with creating a huge shift in the ambition, self-belief, and confidence of his pupils, as well as improving academic performance.
DCMS awarded us a grant to set up festivals with related year-round activity in five new regions where we were not already active. We chose Bristol, Humber, Leicester, West Midlands, and Milton Keynes, all areas with social disadvantage.
Alongside the festival days, bespoke programmes were developed for each region, creating hubs with year-round activity, including in-school workshops, events with industry, and global mentoring support through the TeenTech Awards. We strongly believe that it is not about one-off events, but a coherent series of powerful interventions.
We consulted carefully with regional groups to ensure we embarked on what was most needed. A wide range of school workshops, innovation days and festivals have already run in Leicester, Milton Keynes, Hull, and Bristol with an exciting Innovation day coming up at MIRA Technology Institute in November.
It has been very gratifying to see the excitement and energy already generated by the activity across all five regions. All regions are very keen to continue in 2020 and fundraising for this has begun.
Across Leicestershire, 460 students took part in school workshops to design their “safer, kinder, smarter TeenTech City of Tomorrow”, which they showcased as part of the East Midlands Festival day on October 24th. This programme surfaces the ‘invisible’ jobs powering the connected city of the future and helps young people understand the skills needed to shape the world they want to live in.
The Festival brought together primary and secondary schools to meet the most exciting companies in the region, providing plenty of inspiration for TeenTech Award projects. There were 40 different workshops, featuring autonomous cars, space hardware, the use of VR to design rockets, and the programming of robots to navigate the surface of Mars.
Tracey Waterfield, Employment Hub Manager at Leicester City Council, described TeenTech as “an amazing opportunity to inspire both our primary and secondary students” which widens “access to great career opportunities based right here in the city”.
The Milton Keynes Festival day, in partnership with Milton Keynes College, ran at capacity, with brilliant feedback from both schools and participating companies. Teachers said they hadn’t attended “such a fabulous school trip in years” and were impressed with the products pitched by students, ideas, they said, that “far exceeded our expectations”. They shared stories of students arriving back in school excited to tell others about their experiences.
It was gratifying to receive equally enthusiastic feedback from students and teachers after the TeenTech Bristol Festival (match-funded by Rolls Royce and Kinneir Dufort), who appreciated the sheer quality and variety of the workshops, covering everything from cyber security and electric passenger planes to drone deliveries of medical equipment.
In Humber, over 900 students participated in our 'Create Your Future' workshops, with 24 schools and 30 companies taking part in a lively day of challenges and experiments at the KCOM Stadium.
An independent report by the University of Hull Federation of Regional Colleges for Engagement observed “good planning, high quality resources and delivery” and “high levels of enjoyment and engagement in the activities”, making particular note of the positive effect on girls and those from lower-ability groups.
Over 50% of the secondary schools who attended our festivals immediately signed up for the TeenTech Awards. Primary schools will be running the TeenTech City of Tomorrow project before our next set of festivals, already scheduled for 2020.
We are really proud of the impact that has been achieved so far, but this is just the beginning. We want to build upon this work across all the regions. If you are reading this, whether you want to volunteer, provide much-needed funding, host workshops, or find out more, please do get in touch at info@teentechevent.com. We would love to hear from you.
]]>Schools can access free resources, and invitations to Innovation days and live events, by registering for the TeenTech Awards or TeenTech City of Tomorrow programmes.
Earlier this year, Weldmar Hospicecare Trust, an independent Dorset-based charity specialising in palliative care, was awarded funding to digitally upskill their staff, volunteers, and patients, including their families. The funding will also support Weldmar in the development of an app to aid remote monitoring of community patients. In this blog, we hear from Sandra Smith, Business Development & Commissioning Manager at Weldmar Hospicecare Trust, on the project so far.
It has been a very busy first few weeks since we were awarded funding from DCMS’ Digital Inclusion Fund, enabling us to nurture the digital skills of our staff, volunteers, and patients, as well as their loved ones. This funding followed an initial research stage during which we connected with a variety of other hospices, technology providers, and university researchers in order to evidence the viability of our proposed model of delivery.
Weldmar Hospicecare specialises in palliative care. This is care given to help people live as good a life as possible when their illness cannot be cured.
Our aim is to provide end-of-life expertise and support for people living in Dorset. We care for patients and their families, not just symptoms and illnesses. We work closely with the NHS, as well as social services and voluntary organisations. All of our care is provided free of charge, and we support over a thousand people each year.
Our services are delivered across a predominantly rural area of North, West, and South Dorset. The area also has a higher-than-average and increasing older age profile, and these factors combine to create greater difficulties in terms of our ability to deliver our services, as well as social isolation for our patients and their loved ones. We have therefore been exploring ways to combat this, including the use of digital technology.
Our project involves a range of different activities, but focuses on the development of a monitoring app which will enable our patients to record their symptoms from their own home on a daily basis using their tablet, phone or computer, and allow our nurses and other clinicians to monitor these symptoms remotely. There will also be the facility to undertake clinician-to-patient consultations remotely via video calling technology.
This type of remote monitoring is commonly referred to as ‘telehealth’ and it is of particular benefit in our location due to our rural geography. Although telehealth is increasingly being used to monitor patients with long-term conditions, it is still a relatively new concept within a palliative care setting.
Since our project received funding in July, we have been working with app development suppliers, and have recently awarded the contract to health technology company Inhealthcare to develop the app, with implementation planned before the end of the year.
We are aware some patients or family members may not previously have made much use of digital resources, or this project may even be their introduction to using digital technology. Our aim is therefore to increase skills, confidence, and interest in exploring the wider opportunities and benefits of digital resources. From a previous pilot, we found that even those who were inexperienced or lacked confidence in using technology found the process of daily score input to be easier than they imagined.
The patients also found it to be a useful tool to look back over their scores, enabling them to review their condition themselves, with their nurse, or with family members or loved ones. One patient commented "since being on telehealth it has given me confidence and peace of mind. I would panic a lot before, but this has stopped that."
Alongside this we have been working on a number of other activities, which will enable our staff, volunteers, patients, and their loved ones to improve their skills and confidence to access and use digital resources in their daily lives.
One of these activities will be the development of digital skills training sessions shaped to suit our client groups. These will be delivered by a professional digital skills trainer in different sessions throughout our organisation, such as at our bereavement groups, day services, and information programmes, and will include patients, their family members and loved ones, staff and volunteers.
We have also joined the Online Centres Network and have begun to complete their online sessions, which will also provide useful tools to enhance staff members and volunteers’ skills and confidence to support patients and their loved ones on their own digital journeys.
Another avenue we are working on is to assist our patients and their loved ones to search for appropriate apps to provide additional health and care support. There is a plethora of health and care apps available through various app stores, and we are currently working with ORCHA who are curating an online library of tested apps to facilitate this process.
We have also ensured we can measure the success of the project by engaging an independent evaluator to undertake baseline and ongoing evaluation throughout the project. This will also ensure we can share our learnings more widely.
We are excited to see the developments over the next few months as each of these activities progress. Once the monitoring app is developed and rolled out to patients, we will pick up discussions with other hospices around the UK to see if this is something they may also like to use with their patient cohort, so the benefits may hopefully spread even wider.
We hope that digital skills training will become a regular feature within our patient and carer programmes in the future.
]]>If you would like to find out more, or get involved as a volunteer, please visit our website.
Local DSPs bring together businesses, charities, and public sector organisations to tackle local digital skills challenges. Supported by the Digital Skills Partnership, these partnerships are working to build thriving and inclusive local economies.
In this blog post, we hear from Sarah Williams, Regional Coordinator for the Cheshire and Warrington Digital Skills Partnership.
I am Sarah Williams and I was recently appointed to the role of Digital Skills Partnership Coordinator for Cheshire and Warrington, delivered by the Local Enterprise Partnership. I am delighted to be working on this exciting programme that provides opportunities to work with businesses and key stakeholders in Cheshire and Warrington to accelerate and improve digital capability in the area.
Leading and managing the development of digital skills has featured in roles I have undertaken in post-compulsory education and training in the public and private sectors for the past 24 years. I have worked across a range of sectors including general and vocational education, higher education, work-based learning, and adult community learning. This has included supporting the delivery of education and training in an open and flexible learning environment that meets the needs of businesses and individuals.
The need for digital skills to extend and retain the area’s productivity advantage is a key theme in the emerging Cheshire and Warrington Local Industrial Strategy. From logistics to automotive to financial services, digital and STEM skills are fundamental to our local employers’ needs to grow and become more productive. Digital skills have been identified as a key, cross-cutting skills need that forms the cornerstone of every business in every sector and my work with the Digital Skills Partnership (DSP) will assist in the reskilling and upskilling of the existing workforce. Bentley Motors, headquartered in Crewe, are working closely with the DSP to inform this work.
Not enough young people in Cheshire and Warrington are pursuing digital or STEM qualifications and less than two percent of work experience placements are digital or STEM related. Working with the Cheshire and Warrington Pledge Partnership, the DSP will ensure that businesses are at the heart of inspiring and informing young people about new digital technologies and career opportunities so they can make informed decisions about the training and education that they choose.
The DSP will deliver projects that enable businesses and residents to acquire the digital skills they need for work or to function in an increasingly digital age, something I am passionate about.
I am delighted to report that the Cheshire and Warrington Digital Skills Partnership launched in May 2019. Over 70 businesses attended the event which was held at Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre. Senior representatives from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport joined headline speaker Maggie Philbin OBE at the launch. The event provided opportunities to showcase some of the innovative work of existing partners and showcase the skills of our young people.
We also had a student from our local University Technical College speak at the event. Bentley were so impressed by her that she was invited to attend their apprentice assessment centre, and was subsequently offered an apprenticeship!
I believe the success of the DSP will be in its ability to build further on the progress to date of the already-established partnerships and projects in the area, and close any gaps in provision. I am in the process of producing an initial draft roadmap for the DSP that sets out the digital landscape, objectives, enablers, stakeholders, methods and impact for the Cheshire and Warrington DSP.
I will be working with Cheshire and Warrington’s businesses and training providers to develop tailored training and education packages of support that will enable individuals to progress in work by reskilling and upskilling. A significant amount of this support will be available via our £30m Virtual Institute of Technology.
I am also pleased to report that the DSP will soon be announcing the successful applicants for the £5 million digital and STEM equipment fund that will support a series of projects that will transform digital and advanced engineering skills across Cheshire and Warrington.
Do get in touch with me at digitalskillspartnership@871candwep.co.uk to find out how you can get involved. I am especially keen to engage with employers who able to provide opportunities to nurture and inspire future talent, for example through providing internships or speaking at local events.
]]>For more information, please visit the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership website or follow them on Twitter.
Local DSPs bring together businesses, charities, and public sector organisations to tackle local digital skills challenges. Supported by the Digital Skills Partnership, these partnerships are working to build thriving and inclusive local economies.
In this blog post, we hear from James Wilkinson, Regional Coordinator for the South East region.
Hi, my name is James Wilkinson and I recently joined the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) team as Regional Coordinator for the Local DSP. With a population of around 4.2 million (that’s around the same as Croatia!), we’re the largest LEP outside London, covering the whole of Essex, Kent and East Sussex.
Before taking up this role I spent ten years or so at Essex County Council, as a member of the Employability and Skills Unit. During this time, I managed part of the Essex Apprenticeship Programme, working with industry partners to support the hiring and retention of Apprentices. I devised and managed a programme to offer young people from care backgrounds extended, paid work experience placements within voluntary-sector organisations. More recently, I managed the Essex Education and Industry STEM Programme, working with schools across the county to host a range of industry-led activities to show students the various career paths open to them within STEM sectors.
Our Local Digital Skills Partnership was launched with great success in Hastings in June this year. We were delighted to see over 130 people from across the region attend to hear from a range of speakers on their impactful work to improve digital capability within the region, including presentations from Google, local colleges, SMEs and charities.
Following on from this, my focus has shifted to our recently-launched Digital Skills Survey to gather evidence, map activity and identify resulting digital skills gaps within the region. Later this year, I’ll be bringing together individuals from the education and voluntary sectors to shape our key local priorities, using responses to the Survey and other valuable data around the digital skills gap.
At the same time, I am continuing to travel around the region, meeting with a range of national and local organisations immersed in the world of digital skills to explore how we may work together.
My fellow Regional Coordinators have spoken in their respective blog pieces about the fantastic organisations already driving digital skills growth across their regions.
It is the same here in the South East. The role of the Local Digital Skills Partnership is, in part, to make sure that these initiatives are well-known. In an area the size of SELEP, partners might not be aware of what’s going on in the next county, for example, and one of the things I’ll be looking to do is to produce a local prospectus around digital skills provision and support.
I have also set up a DSP page on the SELEP website, through which I’ll regularly share information I’ve gathered on my travels and updates on progress too.
I don’t want to foretell the results of our Digital Skills Survey, but I expect that we’ll hear from individuals and organisations on some of the difficulties we are facing today, including keeping up with the sheer pace of changing digital technologies, concerns over those at risk of becoming digitally excluded, and pressing issues relating to the recruitment and retention of education staff with the right skills, knowledge and experience.
It won’t be all doom and gloom, of course, and, on that note, I’m expecting that we’ll also hear more examples from organisations on their excellent and innovative approaches to support people in developing their digital knowledge and capability across our region.
If you’re reading this and you live or work in Kent, Essex or East Sussex, please be sure to complete the survey. Your valuable input will help the Partnership, and myself, to understand what we should be focusing on around digital skills, with support from local and national partners.
I’m hugely excited to be taking on this role for the South East region and am so thankful to everyone who has taken the time to meet with me and share their insight.
]]>If you are interested in learning more about the South East Digital Skills Partnership, visit our page and follow us on Twitter for further details.
Simon Leeming, Head of the Digital Skills Partnership, and Avi Gillis, Head of Digital Inclusion Policy & Diversity in Tech at DCMS, recently visited South Bank Engineering UTC. The following blog post was written by Sanmi Famakinwa, one of South Bank UTC’s Year 12 students and their Student Media Officer.
These days, even those with the highest academic achievements struggle to find work. The side-effect of our society becoming more traditionally educated is that employers are faced with throngs of people who have little to differentiate themselves. It is a wonder, then, that many schools only invest in what has become inflated currency. This problem, alongside other issues in the technical industry, like diversity and the digital skills gaps, led to the creation of South Bank Engineering UTC.
For those unfamiliar with the term, ‘UTC’ stands for University Technical College. Broadly speaking, it denotes an academy for students aged 14 to 19 focusing on an industry speciality. A local university acts as the main sponsor with employer businesses as co-sponsors. There are 49 UTCs in the country with various specialisations, but generally, all recognise that the path to some of the best-paying careers isn’t simply grades.
Our Principal, Dan Cundy, has said on the academy:
Our first interest is to develop the way students use technology in ways industry require to help future workplace adjustment... [for example] most schools don’t allow students to use their own devices at all, but in the workplace you would use technology as required.
Our UTC specialises in the STEM field (particularly engineering) and has proud sponsors in South Bank University, Skanska and the NHS. Patrons were aware of the racial homogeneity in STEM professions—which has the potential to make minorities conclude that there is a barrier, especially as they struggle to see themselves reflected in the sector. To help address this issue of diversity, the UTC was built in Brixton. Today we are around 90% BME (Black and Minority Ethnic). Here’s an insight into the specialist education students are receiving here.
The UTC aims to provide clear pathways for students, especially in industries where skill gaps are more important than grade gaps. Examples of some of our initiatives include:
The advantage of our outward focus is that many prominent companies have been to the UTC in its short life span. ThoughtWorks, Al Jazeera and Google for instance have done workshops with students. As a student myself, I can say a concerted effort goes into organising employer link projects at the UTC. I get a renewed zeal to pursue my education whenever I hear first-hand the exciting things going on inside companies.
We would like to thank our recent visitors, Simon Leeming and Avi Gillis from the Digital Skills and Inclusion team at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for coming in. They spent some time with the Year 13 computer science students, who had this to say:
"My main takeaway from the (DCMS) visit is that Computer Science can get you far in life with different careers." — Isse
"The UTC has enhanced my prospects with the many visits to and from companies, which had me understand and develop my form of thinking and planning when it comes to solving problems." — Hussein
"What excites me most about tech is that it is involved in every field. I would be able to use my skills in all fields." — Mustafa
]]>For more information on how you can get involved and create opportunities for young students in inner cities, please email Dan Cundy at dan.cundy@southbank-utc.co.uk or visit the South Bank Engineering UTC website.
Earlier this year, the Down’s Syndrome Association’s DSActive program received funding from DCMS' Digital Inclusion Fund to develop a nutrition app, Health Swap. The app encourages positive lifestyle choices for people with Down’s syndrome, while improving their digital skills. In this blog, we hear from Guy Wilcox, Project Delivery Officer at the Down’s Syndrome Association, on the app's development and its impact thus far.
In July 2019, we launched the Health Swap app, made possible with funding from DCMS’ Digital Inclusion Fund. The app was launched by our DSActive programme, a national programme aiming to provide as many opportunities as possible for people with Down’s syndrome to lead active and healthy lives.
In a world where technology is increasingly being used, people with Down’s syndrome can often get left behind. The new Health Swap App, specifically designed for people with Down’s syndrome, will allow them to improve their digital skills as well as make more informed choices about healthy eating and exercise.
In addition, we hope that the format of the app can be replicated and potentially inspire the creation of other apps to tackle digital exclusion.
Working on the DSActive Health Swap App was a challenge I couldn’t refuse and one that’s very close to my heart. My eldest brother Paul has Down’s syndrome and I know what a difference a healthy diet has made to him. I’ve worked as an app developer for many years and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to help other people with Down’s syndrome improve their health and well-being.
70% of people with Down’s syndrome are overweight. For the rest of the UK. this figure is 50%. Thanks to DCMS’ Digital Inclusion Fund, we have another tool to help address this worrying statistic.
When we began the project, the first questions I considered were who, what and why:
To help get fuller answers to all three questions we set up a focus group to work with us on developing the app. We interviewed eight people with Down’s syndrome who live independently, in supported living.
We asked them questions about their eating habits, nutrition and exercise, observing their cognitive and digital capabilities. We were also able to assess their ability to read and use other apps and asked them to identify pictures of healthy or unhealthy foods.
Getting the Health Swap app user experience right was a really important part of its success. We’ve worked really hard to make it as easy to use as possible, with large, easy-to-press buttons and carefully thought-out, simple sequences.
Our insights informed us that the app would require the following design aspects to ensure it was as inclusive as possible:
The app has been live for a month and has already been downloaded by over 740 users. Health Swap has received an average review score of 4.7 out of 5 stars on both the App Store and Google Play Store.
We’ve also received great feedback direct from users, including this feedback from Nicola, Kelly’s mum:
I wanted to share these pictures with you of my daughter, Kelly, age 30. I put the app on her phone, which is glued to her hand, usually on YouTube, checking out the soaps. She thinks it’s great; it’s easy for her to navigate and use, and she loves ticking off the ingredients on the shopping list.
Kelly wrote to us a few days later and said:
I have been using the Health Swap app for a few days now and it is fantastic. I love choosing the meals and ticking things off the shopping list. I also like tracking all my sports. I think this is going to help me continue to make good eating choices.
We’ve learned some important lessons during the course of the Health Swap app’s development. User involvement in the design process has been vital. Working collaboratively has ensured that the app will improve digital inclusion for people with Down’s syndrome and help them make positive changes to their well-being and lifestyle.
]]>Visit the Down’s Syndrome Association website for more information on their DSActive programme. You can download the Health Swap app here.
I am Ben Bolton and I was recently appointed to the role of Digital Skills Partnership Coordinator for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Now, I appreciate that on paper that may sound a little dry, but nothing could be further from the truth. This role offers a great opportunity to work with a wide range of proactive and innovative stakeholders, in a sector with unprecedented opportunities. The digital sector will play a huge role in driving economic growth and I am delighted to be able to play a small part in ensuring we propagate the skills required to make this a reality.
My career to date has largely been focused on developing and implementing strategy and fostering collaboration. Most recently, I have been working with partners to research the impact of technology and social media on young people’s mental health. One of my key findings was that the many positive aspects of technology are being lost in the race to find the negative headline. The digital world gives young people an unparalleled opportunity to develop skills for the future workforce, but this message is not always being heard.
I am pleased to report that a huge amount has already happened. Every day, I am hearing more about the fantastic work already underway in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and it is clear that we are not starting this partnership from scratch. The sector has a rich history of skills development and innovation. However, there are still significant skills shortages that are impacting productivity and growth. In addition, we have over 70,000 people who have never accessed the internet. The DSP will aim to address these challenges.
On the 9th May, we delivered a launch event with over 100 stakeholders attending. It was a roaring success and the level of engagement in the room was contagious. If this event is an indication of the enthusiasm of this sector, the future looks incredibly bright for the CIoS DSP. The Minister, Margot James recorded an informative video for the event and Faith la Grange from Microsoft gave an engaging keynote speech summarising the key objectives of the DSP, clearly a subject close to her heart. The event also provided the opportunity to showcase some of the existing work of local partners.
I am really impressed with the fantastic work underway in Cornwall. We have a number of well-established Industry groups that are both providing training and also engaging young people in exploring tech related careers. Despite this excellent foundation, I absolutely believe the DSP has a role to play. Whilst there is an encouraging amount of activity in the sector, there's a need for a clear overarching strategy and focus. There is always the danger of trying to do everything but in reality, doing nothing. One of the DSP's key purposes is to bring focus, coordination and strategic intent to ensure that doesn't happen.
I believe the success of the DSP will be based upon its ability to drive systems change. Rather than just bringing in additional training, we need to focus our efforts on understanding how the current approach can be improved, seeking to redesign this in a coordinated and sustainable way.
The ultimate goal is to deliver a home-grown skills pipeline and break down some of the barriers to engagement. It won’t be easy or quick, but I am convinced that the DSP will play a fundamental role in meeting the challenges and capitalising on the opportunities.
]]>Libraries NI is the largest public library authority in the UK. It serves the entire population of Northern Ireland which means it is uniquely placed to help address digital exclusion issues. The Digital Citizen project delivered by Libraries NI and funded by the Northern Ireland Department for Communities tackled the serious digital skills deficit in Northern Ireland by delivering digital learning opportunities across the Libraries NI network and in community settings.
A Digital Citizen has the skills required to use digital technology purposefully and confidently to communicate, find information, purchase goods/services, problem solve and create. These digital skills are becoming increasingly important everyday life skills with activities, services and communication channels such as shopping, banking and government services moving online.
In September 2018, with funding from the Department for Communities, we launched the Digital Citizen Project to deliver the skills needed. There are 96 public libraries in Northern Ireland, which we work closely with, in addition to local councils to help address issues such as digital exclusion.
The project came in response to research by Citizens Online on the digital landscape in Northern Ireland which showed that 18.8% of the population have never used the Internet while 32.2% of the NI population aged 16 - 65 years have low or no digital skills.
Through the Digital Citizen Project, we wanted to demonstrate that libraries are uniquely positioned between communities and government to help adults to:
We targeted adults in rural areas, areas of significant deprivation (neighbourhood renewal areas), adults with disabilities and retired and older people. Our target was to deliver 2,000 learning opportunities within six months.
Six trainers located throughout Northern Ireland were tasked with the provision of the learning opportunities in libraries and outreach settings over a six-month period. This team delivered free tailored training programmes, group sessions and one-to-one support which were promoted as eClinics.
They worked with groups and individuals to establish what their needs were and their preferred learning styles. This agile approach allowed a vast array of topics and formats of delivery to be covered. A key success was the way trainers established relationships with groups and communities. We found the most popular were:
The project exceeded the targets and we know a major part of the success was in the flexibility of delivery and targeted outreach.
Evaluation follow up has identified some additional outcomes below:
Testimonials
It is the stories that really highlight key successes of the project and the real impact to the individuals who received training. Below are some testimonials from those who were part of or participated in the training programme.
“The iPad course delivered by Joanne from Libraries NI, has been a resounding success. Each one of our service users who have taken part, have loved how much fun and how accessible the iPad is. These devices have already helped build their confidence and have taught them the skills they need to learn how to thrive.”
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"Having been through a lot of health problems and feeling isolated - going along to these digital help sessions has really given me a new lease of life. I am now able to go on YouTube and watch ‘how to videos’ which helps me around the house. I also like to listen to music and I was shown how to use YouTube and Spotify. All through a 45 minute ‘eClinic’ session.’’
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"I went along to one of Karen’s iPad sessions and found it really useful. A priest friend of mine moved to California and Karen showed me how to use the internet to go online and watch his church services by live streaming on the church website. It makes me feel connected and happy to be able to see him.’’
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]]>For further information follow us on @LibrariesNIDCP