Shelagh Green, Director for Careers and Employability, talks about how she devised and ran a group activity to build digital capability in her team.

The activity was part of a service day bringing the department of around 50 staff together to look at digital and data skills in a broad context and to provide space and support to build capabilities. During the session staff used the Discovery Tool to identify their digital skills strengths and areas for development, had paired discussions on the findings, found development resources, set out an action plan, and committed to review progress with their partner in six months’ time.

The activity has increased staff awareness of different types of digital skills and as a result the team is better placed to advise students on developing the digital skills they will need in today’s workplace. Staff confidence in digital has also increased, enabling more efficient use of digital tools to deliver services and meet student expectations. Staff are more willing to experiment with digital tools and to share their learning with each other and recommend resources. By including this activity in the service day, and incorporating skills development into staff activity on an ongoing basis, Shelagh has clearly signalled that developing digital skills is important within the Careers Service.