Rising to the Office for Students commuter challenge Emma Moore, Director of Careers and Employability @EmmaatUoL Paul Gratrick, Faculty Business Partner @paulgratrick Leah-Ella Hegarty and Zoe Blundell , Digital Coaches @leahhegarty_ @zoeblundelll

Workshop aims Understanding the project and its objectives The research base and how we identified commuter students The 12 week summer programme and its outcomes How it fits into the peer to peer philosophy at Liverpool The impact on the commuter students and Q&A with Leah and Zoe

Connect with businesses Project timeline Digital Summit: Connect with businesses Showcase skills June 2019: Group Interviews July/Aug 2019: Training & work shadowing May 2019: Email inviting us to apply June 2019: Research & fact-finding Sept 2019: Insight report Digital skills session delivery 12 week internship Start Graduation April 2019 Sept 2019: Go into Third Year as a trained Digital Coach Funding Agreed by Office for Students Programme repeats for another year

Working with a local partner The scale of the funding and early milestones meant that a partner was needed Agent Academy are a Liverpool based social enterprise originally established to work with 16 – 25 year olds lacking key skills They are specialists in skills development for creative and digital industries.

The digital skills gap in Liverpool IPPR North (2017) ‘Digital Skills for the Northern Powerhouse’ the most pressing issue is to target those young people currently at transition points in their education or training, in order to encourage them to choose a path which could lead them into a digital career. Centre for Cities (2018) Liverpool is the third worst city in the UK for Educational Outcomes and has the second highest proportion of residents with no formal qualifications and are therefore also more exposed than average to potential job losses to automation in the coming decade Tech North ‘The Digital Powerhouse’ (2016) The demand for digital skills in Liverpool City Region is highlighted in recent surveys. Liverpool has under half the number of digital economy jobs compared to Manchester (19,500 vs. 52,000) LCR Skills for Growth Action Plan (2018) The need for skilled, digital, graduate talent has never been greater. An Employer Skills Survey identified that employers in the digital sector have the largest issues with technical skills, as well as having significant employability skills gaps

Identifying commuter students Definition for this project: A student whose entry-domicile (permanent) address and term time address is in either the Liverpool or the Birkenhead Travel To Work Area (TTWA). This data is held in the student record system and you match the postcodes to the TTWA postcodes. Around 17% of the student population fall into this category and we then mailed them directly to encourage them to apply for the project "There are not ... universally or widely accepted definitions of either commuter students or student engagement.“ "Those who travel to their higher education provider from their parental or family home, which they lived in prior to entering higher education - rather than having re-located to live in student accommodation for the purposes of studying. This includes full-time and part-time, undergraduate and postgraduate, and in all disciplines and types of institution.“ Liz Thomas, Student Engagement in the Context of Commuter Students The Liverpool Travel to work area (TTWA)

Success Criteria In the 2017 DLHE Survey 18% of UK FT UG Liverpool commuter students were in non graduate jobs compared to only 13% of students who came to study at the University of Liverpool from outside of the region. Through this project we will close this gap. 50% of businesses involved in the project recruit a University of Liverpool student or graduate during the life of the project. 1000 students upskilled in shortage digital skills by April 2021 – 500 per year.

The programme and its outcomes Programme Segment  Week  Skills Theme  Learn Wednesday  Expert  Thursday Apply Friday Industry Research  Week 1  Industry Introduction Wednesday 19th June  Baltic Shed  Thursday 20th June  Agent HQ Friday 21st June  Week 2  Strategy Development  Wednesday 26th June Thursday 27th June Friday 28th June  Week 3 Engagement  Wednesday 3rd July  Thursday 4th July  Friday 5th July  Upskilling  Week 4 Project Management  Creative Development  Wednesday 10th July  Thursday 11th July  Friday 12th July  CoLC Week 5 Web & Digital  Wednesday 17th July  Thursday 18th July  Friday 19th July  Week 6 Digital Marketing  Data Analysis  Wednesday 24th July  Thursday 25th July  Friday 26th July  Week 7  Communications  Wednesday 31st July  Thursday 1st August  Friday 2nd August  Week 8 Campaign Planning and Activation  Wednesday 7th August  Thursday 8th August  Friday 9th August  Week 9  Digital Revolution Wednesday 14th August  Thursday 15th August  Friday 16th August  Experience  Week 10  Work Shadowing  Wednesday 21st August  Placement  Thursday 22nd  August  Friday 23rd  August  Train the trainer  Week 11 Training Tools Development  Wednesday 28th August  Thursday 29th August  Friday 30th August  Careers Hub  Week 12 Presentation and Training Skills  Wednesday 4th September  Thursday 5th September Friday 6th September  Each week had a theme Visited over 30 employers across the Liverpool City Region (SMEs) Fridays at City of Liverpool college Work shadowing week Presentation training Final week reporting findings

Weekly reflective vlogs What we did Published a blog Made connections Weekly reflective vlogs Gained certificates Built websites Made Word Press sites

What’s next for us? Delivering digital skills sessions on campus Continuing to learn and build our networks Setting up a student society It’s changed our outlook on finding a job: Looking for work after graduation

Peer to peer at Liverpool Peer to peer is a philosophy at Liverpool and not just an operational choice They enhance our overall resources but also maintain our position as experts The 18 Digital Coaches can be deployed in a variety of ways this coming year We can learn a lot from them & our HECSU research project

How has this impacted the students?

Q&A with the coaches