UK’s digital skills under investigation

The UK Digital Skills Taskforce is an independent review, requested by Ed Miliband and led by broadcaster Maggie Philbin, tasked with looking at what can be done to develop home grown talent for digital industries and for the digital needs of all sections of the economy. The taskforce has called for ideas, evidence and suggestions from all organisations and individuals with an interest in digital skills as well as specific case studies of best practice. It plans to produce an interim report for June 2014 with the aim of influencing manifesto development of all political parties ahead of the 2015 general election. Topics the taskforce is interested in include which digital skills are most urgently needed and what are the digital skills that will be needed in the future? How can perceptions of digital careers be improved? What role can apprenticeships play in boosting the UK's home grown talent for digital skills? What would a really good apprenticeship in digital skills/IT look like? What would help companies of all sizes offer apprenticeships? More details can be found here: http://www.ukdigitalskills.com/call-for-evidence/ Philbin said: "Technological advances are causing considerable change within the economy, making many jobs redundant while creating whole new careers and industries. This represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the UK. We want to know what can be done to ensure that the UK does its utmost to prepare for this." You can email tom@ukdigitalskills.com with submissions, copying in Maggie@ukdigitalskills.com