Wanting to add the highest possible value to our aim to support the growth of the local Digital and Tech industry, our teams took part in events on each day of the Digital Skills Festival. Below, we describe our activities, and the key take-homes we gained from the festival.
Conference Day:
The core focus of the Conference Day were the sessions discussing ‘Where is the North going in terms of levelling up in technology?’, and a panel discussion asking ‘How do we protect the sector’s growth and continue to address the skills gap through the cost of living crisis?’. Offering AtkinsRéalis’ insights was John Batterbee, Practice Director of our Applied Technology practice, who outlined the key trends we are seeing, and the innovative approaches we use to deliver excellent consulting, design and engineering services for our clients.
Digital Apprentice Day and Talent Day:
These two days provided us with the chance to share the diverse job opportunities we offer, and to discuss our commitments to upskilling students and people in their early- and mid-careers. As part of the day, we hosted a Case Study workshop session around ‘The Future of Airports’. This session aimed to give participants an insight into how we work, and the thought processes that go into developing solutions to ensure our clients stay resilient in the future. Alongside this session, we enjoyed many interesting discussions with attendees as part of the Speed Networking and CV Clinic sessions.
Professional Development Day:
During this day, we hosted a virtual session on “Cyber Training with Gaming Integration”, which focused on upskilling our audiences and showcasing a range of our highly interactive virtual training methods. Cyber Security is one of the key areas where we’re delivering impactful changes every day, and our team was excited to share their knowledge and experience with the professional development attendees.
Insights Day:
Lastly, we visited Trinity High School in Manchester, to provide insights to Year 8 students into careers within both Digital and Consulting. The day ended with a speed networking session, where the students met with professionals from AtkinsRéalis and the NW Cyber Security Cluster working in the Digital Sector, to ask questions and discuss their career aspirations.
Sponsoring the Digital Skills Festival offered a great chance to celebrate our industry with Manchester Digital and all the participants. We really enjoyed engaging with over 2000 students, graduates and job seekers, as well as hundreds of industry professionals and we’re looking forward to more interactions with the North West digital and tech community in the future.
