The Institute of Coding (IoC) has launched a new campaign called CTRL Your Future – aiming to empower a diverse group of people to achieve careers in digital via higher education.
The Age Diversity Forums’ Partnership Manager, Jill Cowles, recently spoke to Rachid Hourizi, IoC Director, about the new campaign and why diversity is an important element. Click the ‘pic’ below to watch the interview.
CTRL Your Future is a campaign from IoC to engage diverse groups of people and encourage them to seek higher education that leads to employment within the digital workforce.
The campaign will see the IoC partner with various industry trailblazers across fashion, design, gaming and social activism. Through these collaborations, we want to challenge the perceptions of the digital sector and show everyone the exciting career opportunities.
The aim of this campaign is to encourage a more diverse cross-section of people into digital using the stories of accessible and relevant role models to show them the viable opportunities that exist.
The IoC is a national initiative supported by the UK government that has been formed to respond to the UK’s digital skills gap. This includes three primary challenges recognised by government, employers and educators:
- An insufficient volume of, and high demand for, UK digital and IT specialists,
- Poor diversity and inclusion in digital education and careers, and
- Lack of alignment between skills provision and employer needs graduates.
Led by the University of Bath, the IoC is a large consortium of educators (35 universities), employers and outreach organisations (more than 100) that is committed to co-developing new courses and activities that will help a larger and more diverse group of learners into digital careers.
The IoC is responding to these challenges by forming new relationships and building programmes that respond to both employer and learner needs. This includes over 40 new courses that have engaged over 22,000 learners to date, with many more courses launching this autumn.
“To solve any of the problems facing the digital sector, we need to bring together people that understand employers needs, people that understand how to educate, and people that understand the barriers and motivations facing people from different groups.”
The members of the IoC consortium, a large national consortium of employers, educators and outreach organisations, are co-developing and delivering industry-led standards and innovative courses designed to improve the industry readiness of:
- university students (within computer science departments and beyond),
- digital workers in both traditional IT roles and roles that are rapidly becoming digital (e.g. graphic designers, lawyers, engineers etc.)
- hard-to-reach groups that may not have considered a digital career.
In addition to the development and delivery of these standards and courses, an IoC digital skills observatory has been created to undertake horizon scanning and employability analysis. This work will inform future developments and the enable the sharing of best practice and new ideas.
The Age Diversity Forum is a strategic partner with the IoC and together, we have aims for inclusion, diversity and widening participation.
The IoC’s view of the industry shows that neither the learner cohort, or the workforce, is sufficiently diverse or inclusive in the digital sector. It also shows that those groups currently responsible for digital development, are not necessarily representative of society as a whole. We therefore need to increase diversity in the digital sector, to understand the barriers to inclusion, and how to overcome them.
Our communities hold a rich pool of talent, that have different experiences, and that hold diverse ambitions and knowledge that we need to attract and develop.
Providing a culture where communities feel they can belong, does mean we need to change and adapt our thinking. We need to challenge ourselves to understand the barriers people and businesses face and take that learning to influence the work and personal development environment, working in partnership to instil and embed best practice.
For all IoC information, please visit www.instituteofcoding.org and for all enquiries, please contact Alicia McEwan at [email protected]
For all Age Diversity Forum information, please contact Jill at [email protected]