We’re incredibly excited to launch Aspiration Digital!
We’re inviting young people and teachers across Kent to attend a digital conference in Maidstone in a bid to inspire students about the opportunities in the digital industry.
Aspiration Digital is being held at Maidstone Girls Grammar School on Friday 2nd of November following the success of the student digital workshops we've held over the summer holidays!
Earlier this year, an investigation found there to be a lack of information explaining the diverse opportunities of a career in the digital world, particularly marketing. 51% of 8,405 young people in the UK aged 18-24 said that digital marketing was ‘never’ or ‘hardly ever’ mentioned at their school, with just 1% reporting that it was talked about ‘a lot’ during their school days.
In light of this, we really wanted to tackle the so-called ‘recruitment crisis’ by educating students about what jobs there are in the digital world including; design, development, marketing, SEO and account management.
With lots of amazing industry speakers from other Kent-based agencies including Space Between and Firestarter Media, we're also proud to announce that Helen Grant, MP for Maidstone and the Weald will also be in attendance.
Becky Simms, CEO at Reflect Digital, said: “Having worked with a number of schools and universities over the last 7 years while running Reflect Digital I’ve noticed a real lack of digital career knowledge when talking to students. Although students are using the internet, social media and technology every day, they are not aware of the huge plethora of career opportunities.
The aim of the event is to educate sixth form students about the varying career paths, the types of roles, the ways to get into the industry and more than anything to inspire them with some of our industry’s best speakers. The students will be hearing from a real variety of speakers, from startup directors to in-house professionals, I’m so excited about our lineup.
I wanted to host the event at Maidstone Girls Grammar School, my old school, so there is a personal connection there, and when I shared my vision for the conference with them they were really excited to be able to be involved”.
Speaking about the so-called ‘recruitment crisis’, Becky adds: “We are not at a crisis stage, but I am on a mission to help protect our industry by helping inspire students to really think about the career opportunity the digital sector provides and to plan their route.I think schools and businesses need to work together more. Schools can’t keep on top of ever-changing industries like ours on their own, they need support from businesses who know their craft to inspire students”.
Neil Walker, Head of Business, ICT, Computing and Economics at Maidstone Girls Grammar School said: “ The idea for the event was something original which we had not been involved with before. We always are excited to work with local businesses to deliver events which will inspire and inform our students.I think there could be a great deal more information provided about all the different paths and careers that are possible both now and in the future.
Over the past 5 years we have worked really hard to inspire our students to study Computing and now a third of our girls choose to study GCSE Computing and we have increasing numbers electing to study at A-level - The best way is to boost numbers into the industry is to give them role models!”.
To sign-up please fill out the form at the bottom of the Aspiration Digital page.
HUGE thank you to our Aspiration Digital sponsors:
3aaa | Firestarter | Kent Business School | RedSprout | Space Between
