At July’s Learn and Solve’event we were be joined by Anna Collins from Barclays Digital Eagles.
She outlined their free to access learning content, and we unpicked how you can implement this in your workplace to cover the top 10 digital essential digital skills gaps.
This recap includes a recording of Anna’s presentation from the session, as well as in introduction to the work for FutureDotNow and a round up of group input and discussion, both from Jo Osborne, our Learning Solutions Manager.
You also find a written recap of the session – what we learned, and the solutions we started to uncover.
Summary and key takeaways
The Essential Digital Skills (EDS) framework details the different types of digital skills, both life and work, that are essential to our ability to function and thrive in the digital world. Our Unpacking the hidden middle report tells us that out of the 17 EDS skills, there are 10 that are most likely to be lacking in the UK workforce.
We were joined by the Barclays Digital Eagles team who introduced their Digital Wings learning platform and content which has been designed around the EDS to help people close the gap on their digital skills.
Learn
Anna Collins from the Barclays Digital Eagles team introduced the Digital Wings platform, unpacking how they’ve linked their learning to the EDS, clearly signposting the learning to directly tackle those skills most likely to be lacking. They offer various learning delivery methods, both self-driven and virtual trainer led, as well as a hybrid model of the two. They also build tailored pathways depending on the needs of a group of learners. A key part of their offering is their Digital Champions programme, training people in your organisation to help deliver the learning to your workforce.
Solve
In breakout discussion shared ideas on how to solve some of the challenges faced with bringing this type of learning into an organisation. We posed 3 questions and had some great conversation key takeaways to share.
- How would you implement this content in your organisation? Start small, pilot, and iterate on what works best in practice. Make sure the learning is fit for purpose, targeting the areas the business needs – balancing the personal and business impact. Once implemented top up learning regularly – if you don’t keep learning you could be easily left behind. It is always more difficult to catch up if you’re not already running the race.
- What barriers would you face? A complex workforce, in terms of size, geography and type of role. Recognise that people treat tech at work differently to tech at home. Highlight those skills learnt for home to help them see they can do things at work, this builds digital confidence. Get people to access the right content for them, so they don’t get turned off quickly. Provide a diagnostic to help get them started. For some gamification works.
- How would you engage both stakeholders and employees? Identify and promote to colleagues the “what’s in it for me” benefit of uplifting their digital skills. Enlist the help of senior leaders as role-models for digital upskilling; get them to acknowledge gaps in their own skills and doing the learning. Approach it both top down and bottom up. Front line colleagues can be great role models too and can be more are relatable. Listen to colleagues and stakeholders to understand their needs and what is important to them. Help them to understand the link between life and work-related skills. Link digital impact to other priorities such as the green agenda, SDG goals, and recruitment/retention.
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