Over the last two years Digital Jersey has helped over 3,000 islanders complete over 100 different courses to learn how to use digital tools and platforms effectively. These new skills can increase productivity and efficiency in the workplace and provide individuals with the much-needed digital skills employers are looking for.
However, with technology advancing rapidly, the skills gap in the Island is getting bigger – and high quality, relevant and readily accessible digital development pathways can be difficult to find and time consuming for individuals and businesses to organise.
Digital Jersey’s “Digital Skills Credits” six month pilot scheme launches in July and has been designed to make it easier and more cost effective for businesses and individuals to bridge the digital skills gap.
Islanders will still be able to access a vast array of free and paid courses and workshops at Digital Jersey – just the way to pay and sign up for these resources will change.
“Pay as you go” courses will continue from free Level 1 entry level sessions up to bespoke courses at Level 4 and beyond. The new credit subscription will allow islanders to buy a block of credits that can be used by multiple employees in a business or for a named individual. Digital Jersey hopes that “Digital Skills Credits” will prove to be a cost-effective way to access higher level digital skills and could be used to accelerate the learning of an individual or to upskill a whole team or department.
The introduction of the pilot scheme comes shortly after the Government of Jersey published its annual report on population issues, which highlighted that equipping islanders with future-fit digital skills is a critical way to reduce the current rate of population growth and ensure Jersey doesn’t realise the hypothetical population figure of 150,000 by 2040.
Rory Steel, Head of the Digital Jersey Academy said: “We have a track record of delivering high quality, expert led courses at Digital Jersey which we will continue to offer across all price points. Moving to a hybrid of free and paid courses allows us to sustain the quantity and quality of the skills we can support in the long term. This new Digital Skills credit scheme will make it easier to access our courses. We hope that the pilot will be a success and will launch fully in 2024.”
Find out more about the pilot project here.
