Greater Manchester’s Digital Skills Festival returns to the city centre this February to connect job seekers with the region’s top tech and digital businesses, in order to tackle the growing skills shortage.
The week-long skills festival, run by trade body Manchester Digital, takes place from Monday, February 7 to Friday, February 11, with two in-person events in the city centre and multiple online sessions.
Manchester Digital’s MD Katie Gallagher said: “The North West has a fast-growing and globally-recognised tech industry. However, there continues to be a shortage of candidates with the right tech skills to fill these vacancies and drive forward the industry.
“One of our main roles as the trade body for the region is to continue to encourage young people and diverse talent into the tech industry, via numerous routes.
“We’re really pleased to be able to showcase so many of the leading tech and digital businesses from our city region at this in-person event, and to see so many sign-ups from colleges and universities.”
The event, now in its tenth year, includes Conference Day (Monday), where the annual Digital Skills Audit results will be announced and executives from Google and Autotrader will give keynote speeches.
More than 40 leading tech and digital employers from across the North West will be at the Talent Day event (Wednesday) at etc.venues Manchester showcasing around 250 jobs, including Autotrader, BT, Naimuri, the UK Home Office, Bentley, Zühlke, BAE Systems, Co-op, recruiter Hackajob and many more.
Education partners for the event are University of Salford, the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University and Northcoders. As part of National Apprentice Week, Digital Apprentice Day takes place on Tuesday, February 8 with online sessions for employers and prospective apprentices.
Conference Day, on Monday, February 7 at Bruntwood SciTech’s Circle Square, will see the announcement of Manchester Digital’s annual Skills Audit. There will also be two panel discussions with leading business figures around wage inflation within the tech and digital industry, and emerging technologies and how businesses can futureproof themselves moving forwards.
Keynote speaker Craig Fenton, director of Strategy and Operations UK&I at Google, will talk about the future of tech education, and Autotrader will discuss their constantly evolving inclusiveness strategies within their business.
For the full week’s schedule, visit: https://
