If you ask digital and related businesses in the Manchester region what obstacles they face, finding staff with the right skills to grow their business regularly comes top of the list. This is in spite of the fact that there are four major universities producing tens of thousands of graduates each year and that Manchester is at the core of the second biggest conurbation in the UK. You could put this down to three factors:
- The rapid growth of the digital sector, including creative and technical activity from media to software, exemplified by MediacityUK, Sharp etc;
- The notion that the course content in HE institutions is inappropriate;
- A lack of awareness of the opportunities in Manchester for graduates who either assume or are told that they need to go to London.
Many in businesses and in the education institutions are keen to find ways round these problems but there has been little dialogue or progress.
Manchester Digital – working with its partners in the education sector and with the support of Manchester City Council – is holding a Digital Skills Summit to bring the two sides together, along with other interested groups such as business and economic development agencies, recruitment and training specialists. The aim is simply to look at the problems and, more importantly, find solutions.
Solutions like these:
- Opportunities for businesses – including smaller businesses – to influence course content in a way that works for them;
- New opportunities for training providers of all types to communicate with target businesses and to tailor their products;
- Easier ways to take on placements and work with students on projects;
- More awareness among students of the many opportunities in and near Manchester to get work where they can use their digital skills
Who will attend ?
Business owners; business HR; technical and creative managers; teachers; careers professionals; students; recruitment specialists; training providers.
What will the summit achieve?
- A chance for businesses to get information on courses, placements, training
- A chance for educationalists to understand better the challenges for business
- A chance to work together to create lasting solutions.
Talking points
- Why with 50,000 graduates a year is there a skills shortage?
- What skills mixes are digital businesses looking for?
- Can universities produce graduates ready to start digital work?
- What can training providers offer to help SME employees keep up?
- Are universities too divided between creative, business and digital?
- Placements and interns: what works best?
- Is it true that graduates think they have to go to London to do digital?
- What opportunities are there for FE-level student leavers?
- Mechanisms for the future:
- How to keep the collaboration going;
- Raising student awareness of Manchester opportunities;
- Business input on curricula;
- A better way of brokering placements.
To sign up for this event click here.
