{"id":23143,"date":"2018-05-21T07:30:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T06:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digileaders.com\/?p=23143"},"modified":"2019-05-08T14:43:14","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T13:43:14","slug":"digital-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digileaders.com\/digital-for-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital for all"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Tracy Westall has been announced as the Digital Leaders West Midlands local champion 2018.\u00a0Tracy has been in Digital &amp; Technology for over 30 years. She was a NED for GBSLEP responsible for Stimulating Innovation, a member of the Smart City Commission, Birmingham Science City, Smart City Alliance, Tech UK, Innovation Birmingham and initiated DL West Midlands. Currently a Governor at BCU, a NED for the DfT and a Member of the West Midlands Digital Advisory Board.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As a proud brummie, I love where I am from. I love the heritage, tradition, work ethic and creativeness that\u2019s shaped the region I call home. Walking around this unrecognisable city , I marvel at how far we have come. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I even love my accent which thanks to Cillian Murphy and the \u201cPeaky Blinders\u201d is, now dare I say,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>slightly cool!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It\u2019s no surprise to me that according to the latest Tech Nation 2018 report the Birmingham cluster now has 41,550 Digital jobs and a sector generating \u00a32.2b. Innovation is not new to us; after all the West Midlands is the home of the last Industrial Revolution so the fact that we are playing our part in the new \u201cdigital tech\u201d revolution makes absolute sense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">To build on this and play our part, it\u2019s important we have the skills. We know there is a major digital skills shortage across the UK and the West Midlands is no different. If you believe, like me, most companies are tech businesses in some way; whether that\u2019s software programming, content, design etc,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>then it doesn\u2019t take a genius to work out that tackling skills is vital. It\u2019s a recurring theme that access to skills is a major barrier for SME growth so there are plenty of reasons why this is<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>just sound business sense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Given it\u2019s such a big issue \u2013 how do we solve it? The good news is we are all talking about it \u2013 constantly. The even better news is there are plenty of people doing things to fix it or at least move the dial and that we aren\u2019t just looking at the traditional players to solve the problem. The tech sector is also stepping up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Check out the fabulous School of Code, the brainchild of Chris Meah,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>a technology entrepreneur, delivering training to a range of people who maybe wouldn\u2019t have considered undertaking digital skills but importantly have secured new jobs because of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Check out<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Digital Innov8ers developed by ex tech sector Director, Mick Westman working with Solihull College to provide 16+ with practical and real business skills underpinned by digital capability. The results are amazing and humbling especially as some of these youngsters would certainly have fallen through the skills cracks. Credit to the companies who have spotted their potential and employed them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Check out the<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>DigiSheds Smart Skills Engine programme being developed by Founder CEO, Alex Cole leveraging a catalogue of services and technologies to close the digital skills gap. Specifically targeting those \u2018new collar\u201d jobs future proofing our digital and non digital sectors. A game changing approach!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">And there are more I\u2019m sure. I have been lucky to see these ones up close and am inspired. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Reaching different audiences with different skill needs with the common aim of making sure no one gets digitally left behind can only be a good thing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Making sure we have all the skills we need to be part of the \u201ctech revolution\u201d. Now that\u2019s something worth shouting about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.digileaders100.com\/local-champion-2018\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-23186 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/digileaders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DLWeek.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"434\" height=\"82\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tracy Westall has been announced as the Digital Leaders West Midlands local champion 2018.\u00a0Tracy has been in Digital &amp; Technology for over 30 years. She was a NED for GBSLEP responsible for Stimulating Innovation, a member of the Smart City Commission, Birmingham Science City, Smart [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":23181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","region-birmingham","region-west-midlands","topic-innovation","topic-transformation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Digital for all | Digital Leaders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s no surprise that according to the Tech Nation 2018 report the Birmingham now has 41,550 Digital jobs and a sector generating \u00a32.2b. Innovation is not new to us; the West Midlands is the home of the last Industrial Revolution so the fact that we are playing our part in the new \u201cdigital tech\u201d revolution makes sense.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/digileaders.com\/digital-for-all\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Digital for all\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a proud brummie, I love where I am from. I love the heritage, tradition, work ethic and creativeness that\u2019s shaped the region I call home. 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