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Thoughts on the skills question following Thinking Digital Conference

I’ve fought the urge to gush about the many mind-blowing ideas that were aired on Tyneside last week, thanks to the Thinking Digital Conference (TDC). From digital feudalism to entrepreneurial governments - there has already been some great dissections of the talks on social media and blogs. I was there with eyes and ears for any themes that boil down for the North East.

Firstly, it was interesting that TDC followed so closely hot on the heels of Dynamo - another conference that by all accounts has really ignited the region’s appetite to grow its IT and technology prowess. Dynamo, like most industry forums, touched on the skills agenda - and TDC also received its dosage.

Perhaps one of the most striking comments of the conference came from Rob Earnshaw of Creative North. His organisation has launched a programme to develop more apprenticeships in the North East’s creative sector. There’s one hitch, he said - young people can’t name any creative companies in the region.

A promo film showed a handful of youngsters struggling to name any North East creative businesses past The Sage Gateshead and BALTIC. It’s a good point and chimed with something the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones talked about at Dynamo. He suggested that communications and marketing was as much the key to cluster success as the prowess of its organisations.

The skills narrative often forgets that young people are capable of spotting their own strengths and developing them in line with specific roles in the real world. Without knowing about these roles, that organic process can’t happen. It seems part of the challenge to developing apprenticeships, across all sectors, is the “knowing” part - not necessarily the skills part. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .