AIM OF THE INITIATIVE
Cohorts of 12 talented young people from groups traditionally underrepresented in the digital industry take part in a ground-breaking three-month training course designed to be experiential, practical, collaborative and broad. The aim is for them to become digital pioneers of the future, sending a signal to industry to urgently update its approach to diversity and inclusivity in the workforce.
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Help young people feel that, with the right talent and skills, they belong in the digital design world and can develop careers within this field.
FOR DIGITAL AGENCIES
A pipeline for new, homegrown talent that broadens diversity in our industry, provides mentoring opportunities for our people and shares the cost with partners.
FOR EMPLOYERS
A recruiting ground for internship and junior-level talent giving you easy access to diverse young designers with basic training from London’s leading digital agencies.
OUR ROLE
The Skills Lab oversaw the project management, curriculum development, delivery and evaluation of the programme. We co-deliver this programme in partnership with A New Direction and Founding Digital Agencies Beyond, Made by Many, Sennep and UsTwo.
WHAT WE DID
The Skills Lab has used a range of face-to-face and remote collaboration strategies to design and build the programme with our digital agency partners.
The Skills Lab started by developing a competency framework for the programme. We interviewed senior leaders within our digital agency partnership to validate the initial research undertaken to understand the skills and attributes they were looking for in their interns and junior-level positions.
The competency framework provided the basis for designing a curriculum. We ran a series of workshops to map out the learning journey and the content of the programme. To develop the content, we drew on the expertise of our Digital Agency partners. The Skills Lab worked with those tasked to create content to up-skill them with learning design best practices and agree on templates so that the material is consistent.
The partnership shared the responsibility for delivering the programme. The agencies provided the technical aspects of the curriculum, and A New Direction provided the pastoral and employability elements of the programme. The Skills Lab focused on developing the personal and interpersonal capacity of the participants.
The Skills Lab designed the tools needed for monitoring and evaluation. We used this data to identify the emerging needs of the participants and inform programme activity. The data, along with retrospectives, were used to write up evaluation reports and inform iterations on the programme.
WHAT PARTICIPANT ‘FLIPSIDERS’ LEARN
DIGITAL PRODUCT DESIGN
Basic research, user-centred design, prototyping, design tools, testing, pitching and presentation in response to a brief. Taught through design modules, one-off professional talks, online materials and mentoring from digital agencies.
PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS
How to develop the right mindset, skills and attributes for working in a creative team. They are taught teamwork, how to behave in the workplace and how to take responsibility for their own learning and development, facilitated by The Skills Lab.
PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS
Flipsiders work inside digital agencies throughout the programme, get familiar with digital workplace culture and network with design professionals. They learn how to present themselves online and in interviews and how to build their design portfolios.
WANT TO BE OUR NEXT CASE STUDY?
