Organisations across Dorset are working together to ensure the workforce has the skills needed for a digital future.
The Dorset Digital Skills Partnership is inspiring schools, companies and organisations to build the digital skills needed to help the economy thrive and establish the county as a leading digital skills community.
It is an active partnership of 20 members that represent a broad sector of Dorset organisations. including:
- both Dorset councils
- the further and higher education sectors
- private businesses
The partners meet regularly and bring with them energy and creative ideas on how to boost digital skills provision for the county’s current and future workforce.
There have also been successful offshoots as a direct result of the partnership’s work, including:
- Dorset Coding Day for school children. In 2023 more than 5,000 children aged 9 to 11 took part in the event, which aims to inspire them about the world of coding and working in a digital role
- Women in Tech Dorset – a network formed to support women who work in technology, engineering and digital. It holds monthly webinars and quarterly in-person events across the county, with guest speakers from the industry
- extensive stakeholder engagement to understand what workforce digital skills provision there is in Dorset, including: identifying course providers, courses available, level of digital skills (basic to advanced), and to understand where the gaps are. The findings from this will influence a Dorset Local Skills Improvement Plan
- set up a cyber security focus group, regularly meeting with cyber security experts and organisations to find out and promote what support is available to businesses
Currently the partnership’s board is chaired by Dorset Council’s executive director of place.
A steering group has also been set up to inform the main board meetings and to discuss topics such as branding, funding and project ideas.
If you are a Dorset organisation or business that would like to join the partnership, you can email for further information.