Finalist category: Digital Skills Award
#T4GDigitalCity
Digital Skills Award, Finalist, 2017
Connecting young people with local businesses
Think PokemonGo for digital skills; that’s #DigitalCity. A city-wide trail for young people and their parents, connecting them with local digital businesses, helping them find out what skills they need and what careers are on offer.
“I finished school in 2007; 10 years ago this August. Seeing that written down has scared me a little I must admit, however what scares me even more is that career days in schools today are still the same as when I left 10 years ago,” said Kieran Miles, Head of KakeCo who is working hard to change all this with #DigitalCity.
“A young person looking for a career they are inspired by, can simply pull out their phone during #DigitalCity week and through the interactive online map, plan a route to engage with potential employers. We haven’t reinvented the wheel, we just opted to use a mobile-friendly website and map, that allows for increased accessibility across the city.”
During the event at half-term, businesses taking part open their doors and young people and their parents can head on in to meet the founders, directors and other employees.
It started in Norwich in 2016, this year saw #DigitalCity launch in Bristol too. It began as a simple idea and £220 and now translated into over 40 businesses taking part. Over 500 young people head out on the trail and there are over 200,000 interactions on social media.
The aim is to continue to grow the event, tapping into more cities across the UK and eventually the world. It developed as an open source idea so its free to set up, it’s free to take part in and it’s modernising careers events. Its engaging young people in their world and promoting local digital careers to both young people and their parents.
The project has big ambitions. The target for #DigitalCity week 2018 is 10 UK cities taking part and in 2019 it is to increase that with 1 more city taking part in every continent.
