Digital Skills Forum

What's it all about?

The digital skills forum is designed to provide you with the opportunity to share your experiences and challenges AND test your plans and solutions with peers and experts and to learn from their insights and best practices.

The forum will also focus on identifying practical solutions and actionable strategies to help address the digital skills challenges faced by businesses in your communities.

Collaborating to Close the Gap

Meeting on a quarterly basis both online and in-person, as a member, you'll have the opportunity to:

Hear the latest insight and perspectives from a range of guest speakers including policymakers, lead practitioners and top thought leaders
Discuss changes in the market landscape, evolving trends and challenges
Allocate tasks & roles required to each organisation for ownership and focus
Explore practical solutions to challenges in each organisation
Learn from the best practices and insights of others
Collaborate on initiatives to support business in our local communities
Learn what you need to make the most of the opportunity to close your digital skills gap

Get involved

The Digital Skills Forum is designed to provide you with the opportunity to share your experiences and challenges, as we collaboratively work on solving the digital skills gap.

We have 3 dedicated Action Groups as part of the Forum. The Action Groups focus on the impact of digital skills in the areas of Apprenticeships, Gen Ai and Diversity.

We would love to invite new members to join our Forum and play an active role in discussing current and strategic issues.

We invite you to register your interest in joining the growing membership community of the UK’s leaders in tech, business, education and community providers.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Forum. Together we can play a role to help close the Digital Skills Gap, and in turn, drive sustainable UK economic growth.

Good to know

Frequency Asked Questions

Who should attend?

The Forum welcomes all business leaders, government, education and community leaders.

How much time commitment is joining?

Members are encouraged to attend the quarterly meeting and actively participate in the discussions. Action Group members spend 1-2 hours per month on their respective tasks, to drive change between quarterly meetings.

What do I need to prepare for the session?

A couple of weeks ahead of each session, we will provide you with Forum papers which will contain an agenda, topics of interest and discussion points.

Can I bring a colleague?

Absolutely. As noted, we can't solve this on our own. All we ask is that they are in a senior leadership position within your organisation.

Can I present or speak at the Forum?

As a member you will have an opportunity to pitch your ideas and perspectives to the Forum.

What can I do in my organisation to support the mission of the Forum?

We value diverse and inclusive collaboration and knowledge sharing. We encourage our members to share the insights and outcomes from the Forum meetings with their colleagues.

Digital Skills Report

In 2022 AND Digital interviewed thousands of business leaders, hiring managers and workers across the UK to identify the country's key challenges.

The Impact £240bn a year is at risk, as a result of businesses only focusing on the “hard” digital skills

skills gap 27% of UK workers feel they lack sufficient digital skills for their job role

progression gap 29% of respondents say their lack of digital skills has limited pay, promotions and career progression

upskilling gap 58% of knowledge workers have never received digital upskilling from their employer

understanding gap 35% of workers believe digital skills means "fixing IT issues"

View the full report

Get your copy here

The digital skills gap goes far beyond coding. Quickly read the key findings of our research to see the bigger picture, and spread the word by sharing on your social feed, email or blog. With greater awareness, we can close the skills gap together

Turning ambition into impact