Technology5 (003)

The skills and talent conversation continues at a pace across Swindon & Wiltshire with consistent feedback from businesses pinpointing recruitment and retention of staff as a top priority for enabling growth. Heavily tied to this and integral to future success within the region, is the ability to create the right pipeline of talent to support the digital requirements of an evolving economy. Digital, in all its guises, now spans almost every sector in industry, underpinning so many facets of day-to-day life, be it on a personal or commercial level.

In order to help support a digital skills pipeline that can benefit both existing businesses across the region and also those looking for a new home, Higher Futures are working across several projects with key stakeholders to help generate a sustainable model that will deliver the workforce that our future economy in Swindon & Wiltshire will require.

 

1. Institute of Coding (IoC) https://instituteofcoding.org/

This is a nationwide programme bringing together a collaboration of 25 Higher Education Institutes and over 60 businesses spearheaded by the University of Bath centred on delivering a model of consultancy and brokerage to really tackle the digital skills issue. This very recent initiative throws up multiple opportunities to collaborate and Higher Futures are working hard to see how we can optimise any potential synergy with such a focused project. Of particular interest are the “Digished New Collar” learning facilities that the IoC help implement to arm learners with the necessary skills to potentially re-train or gain the digital skills needed to take the first steps into a career in the industry.

 

2. Institute of Technology (IoT)

This is an ongoing bid lead by Swindon College in collaboration with several FE and HEI partners and although geographically focused on the Swindon area, its remit is wider than this looking to support businesses from across Wiltshire. If successful, the IoT will enable the learning and development of young people in the region at levels 3-6 to create a pipeline of talent focused in particular on supporting the Digital and Life Sciences Sectors. The strength of the bid in this region is based upon the solid relationship between our industry and academic partners. Any further partnership opportunities are welcome and will be gratefully explored. If you are interested to find out more please contact us at [email protected].

 

3. Higher Futures Business Engagement, Brokerage & Partnership https://swlep.co.uk/higherfutures

The bedrock of our day-to-day role as Higher Futures is business engagement and partnership, specifically focused on understanding the gaps and requirements that are hindering expansion and growth around the skills agenda. Our relationships with an extensive training provider community allows us to act as a free and impartial advisory service which means businesses will benefit from a wide range of flexible provision. We continue to work with partner organisations such as the Corsham Institute and the British Computer Society to understand the full digital landscape to ensure we can give the best advice to the businesses we meet.

 

If you’d like to find out more on any of the above please feel free to visit our new and improved website https://swlep.co.uk/higherfutures/ or contact us at Higher Futures directly [email protected].