Nationwide embedded digital confidence and self-led learning through bitesize content, on-demand access, hands-on learning and strategic awareness campaigns – supported by self-assessment, internal champions and incentives.
What was the challenge?
With 260,000 people expected to leave the Financial Services Sector in the next 10 years (through retirement, sector moves and leaving the workforce for other reasons) according to Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC), 2024, Nationwide recognised a pressing need to future-proof its workforce by upskilling digital and data literacy.
Digital literacy had been cited as a Future Skill within the FSSC framework, and internal strategic workforce planning flagged it as a priority for capability uplift across functions. A campaign was essential to foster digital confidence and actively engage learners across diverse job roles and business functions.
What they did
Nationwide launched a multi-channel digital skills campaign anchored around the three key skills – one of which was digital know-how.
- Nationwide signed the Workforce Digital Skills Charter with an ambition to use focused action to close the essential digital skills gap in the UK workforce
- Bitesize, on-demand learning was promoted, focusing on flexibility and accessibility
- Self-led assessment was made available alongside tailored Power-App learning recommendations to suit the result of the assessment
- A variety of incentives were offered in the form of competition and access to paid licences for further digital learning to motivate learners to actively take part and ensure digital upskilling was seen as both rewarding and valuable for career growth.
- Learning at Work Week sessions and a hands-on demo was delivered by Microsoft and Nationwide Subject Matter Experts
- Security Awareness Week featured engaging guest speakers covering phishing, social engineering, and online safety
Digital Skills Champions led peer-to-peer digital skills assessment and awareness activities on being safe online - Hosted a record-breaking Learning live session delivered by an Augmented Reality digital platform with over 3000 live attendees that talked about how skills truly matter
Result
- An uplift in M365 productivity tool adoption and increased phishing awareness
- Increased confidence in digital education conversations with customers
- Learning embedded across 12 Days of Digital Christmas, Onboarding Pathways, and leadership forums
- Positive impact on learner engagement, digital safety awareness, curiosity and confidence.
By combining self-assessment, visibility of learning options, peer championing, and incentives, we saw a clear uplift in both confidence and capability across our business. This wasn’t just about learning digital tools – it was about enabling people to feel excited and equipped for the future.
Interview with Joanna Mills & Olanike Aderoju, Nationwide
For more on how cross-sector employers are building suessful digital skills programmes and boosting the digital capability of their workorces, see the ‘Learning that clicks’ report from FutureDotNow.
