Place-based mobilisation
Our approach is to work with existing regional communities including local and combined authorities to raise awareness of the essential digital skills gap and anchor into regional strategies, such as Local Skills Improvement Plans).
Currently only the South-West has an active place-based delivery community, which is being led by Devon-based not-for-profit Cosmic, alongside partners including Cornwall and Dorset Councils.
If you’re interested in helping to mobilise activity in your region, we’d love to hear from you.
Place heatmap
Our interactive Place heatmap sets out the levels of essential digital skills in each UK region and nation, whether it’s improving and if the region is working with FutureDotNow to mobilise action.
See the heatmap to understand the essential digital skills gap in your region.
South-West pilot: Essential Digital & AI Skills and Employability
Our employability pilot tested how essential digital and AI skills can be embedded into employability support to help jobseekers become work‑ready for today’s labour market.
Delivered in partnership with Cosmic and Accenture, the programme was embedded within the existing Restart programme and delivered across communities in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire.
The Place heatmap
The heatmap shows:
- The percentage of workers in each region or nation that can do all 20 Work tasks¹ in the Essential Digital Skills Framework.
- The comparative data point from 2024²
- Whether the trend is improving or worsening
The heatmap also indicates the number of Workforce Digital Skills Charter signatories in each region and if leaders in the region are working with FutureDotNow to mobilise action (i.e. there is a leadership team in place).
Digital skills agency, Cosmic UK, has led activity in the South-West, working alongside local government. As of the end of 2025, no other part of the UK has this type of active community focused on the essential digital skills of the workforce.
Essential Digital Skills for Work: Place heatmap
Essential Digital Skills for Work: Place heatmap
The Place heatmap shows the digital skills position by region and nation. Every part of the UK is experiencing the essential digital skills gap – nowhere has more than half its working population with the full suite of essential digital skills for work.
FutureDotNow has helped to turbocharge Cosmic’s impact in our digital skills employability work. Now we need to turbocharge regional action right across the country. In no UK region do 50% of workers have all the digital essentials for work. In the South-West, we’re bringing partners together to embed essential digital skills into local plans for growth and prosperity, creating a model we can scale across the UK.
Julie Hawker MBE,
Chief Executive, Cosmic
