Closing the digital skills gap: working with business to address local labour market policy

The Leeds City Region (UK) has a significant digital skills gap, with employers struggling to recruit to positions in software development, software testing, business analysis and project management. Local policy calls on universities and businesses to work together to address this gap. This case study considers initiatives undertaken by one university in Leeds to tackle this issue. It focusses on how to use employer and practitioner expertise in a multi-layered approach to co-design both specialist programme content and general digital skills content across multiple programmes to engage students in the development of skills relevant to the local labour market. It also considers the challenges of contextualisation, engagement and the need to work with students to enable them to vision a digital future for themselves. It reflects on the positive outcomes of working in partnership with employers to respond to labour market issues and considers the position of students as stakeholders in such an agenda.