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

2. 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

3. Connect with businesses
Project timeline
Digital Summit:
Connect with businesses
Showcase skills
June 2019:
Group Interviews
July/Aug 2019:
Training &
work shadowing
May 2019:
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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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.

8. 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

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. How has this impacted the students?

13. Q&A with the coaches