DigitalHer: Students Showcase their Digital Skills

An all-female student team from Loreto college published their first Alexa skill on the Amazon Alexa Marketplace. Digital Futures [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Axelisys-Limited-Digital-Futures-Introduction/dp/B07DWBKY8V] is free to enable and introduces listeners to the Greater Manchester digital ecosystem on Amazon Echo devices and the Alexa mobile app.

The Alexa project was one of two real client projects for the Digital Futures program. A Manchester Digital initiative providing work experience and structured pathways for Greater Manchester’s future technology workforce. Two teams from the college developed real briefs supplied by innovation engineers Axelisys and supported by members of Manchester Digital’s 500 strong membership.

“Our clients had several requirement and we were interesting in offering a way for that work to be built by up and coming talent” explains Ethar Alali, founder and managing director of Axelisys [https://www.axelisys.co.uk]. “We chose 8 client projects we thought were suitable and let the teams decide which two they wanted to work on. In return for student work experience, the lucky clients had their projects built for free.”

Axelisys [https://www.axelisys.co.uk] were considering a research project in this area, and the initiative began when Alali answered a request by Manchester Digital for industry support. The firm were looking for ways to support the region’s tech talent, when an independent initiative from Manchester Digital appeared.

“It was just blind luck!” Alali continues “Manchester Digital were looking for firms to help provide work experience and I just answered it. Seemed too good to miss, given we were thinking of doing the same thing.”

Axelisys’ broad range of clients include charities and fledgling social enterprises. Who traditional technology costs prohibitive. With the largest proportion of those costs being staff wages

“Traditional sales advice is to turn these jobs down in favour of bigger fish. It’s not a position we subscribe to, as this also means missing several potential opportunities to help the community and build industry tech skills for an upcoming workforce. We wanted a way to make something of these projects and that’s where the programme came in.”

The clients were happy to engage and Axelisys gave the two teams the choice of one each. Choosing Digital Futures and MancSpirit [http://mancspirit.com/]. Over a period of 8 months, the teams were introduced to lots of industry tech and got to meet other experts from Manchester Digital’s membership. Even BBC staff took part! The students put theory into practise and the feedback was really positive!

“The students told us they really got to know how voice interfaces are put together. They also told us they developed a lot of soft skills with the tech, which they said came as a bit of a surprise. One of the team has even become a young digital ambassador.”

The skills shortage is a longstanding problem in the tech sector. Most UK tech firms still struggle to fill tech roles and that gap looks to be widening. Graduates of 3 year degrees often need a 2 to 4 year graduate traineeship. A model that’s ideal for disruption by education, business and community as Axelisys see it.

“Filling that skills gap needs a recognition that nurturing next generation talent is not only the responsibility of educators. It also needs diverse, industrial opportunities for students, apprentices and interns to run concurrently. Compressing what used to be a 5 to 7 year timeline down to 2 or 3. It is also much more than technology. It’s the sectors that grow to consume and serve the ecosystem around it, like sales, marketing, law, graphics, illustration, accounting and media. I’d encourage any organisation to get in touch and take part.”

Axelisys and Manchester Digital see such projects as a way to develop a robust talent pipeline. Crucial to helping the next generation of coders and digital creatives. Axelisys hope this is the first of many potential opportunities. With the team looking forward to their next adventure.

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Digital Futures can be enabled from the Amazon Alexa Marketplace here [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Axelisys-Limited-Digital-Futures-Introduction/dp/B07DWBKY8V]

Axelisys are an innovation engineering firm based in Manchester, UK and Estonia. Follow them on @Axelisys or visit https://www.axelisys.co.uk for more info.


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