Reflecting on a successful
year of Growing Talent
Digital Leeds

When the summer holidays finally arrive, the team at Ahead Partnership takes a huge sigh before the business of reflecting on the past school year begins. For me, that means analysing the impact of our work, especially on Growing Talent Digital Leeds, our longest running Growing Talent programme.  

If you haven’t heard of it, Growing Talent Digital Leeds is an award-winning annual programme of interactive activities led and funded by some of the city’s top employers, that help young people understand that digital skills will help them access exciting and rewarding careers.  

This year has seen our long-term anchor partners Aire Logic, Accenture, AND Digital, BJSS, Leeds Trinity University and Netcompany devote more time and effort than ever with a massive 223 volunteers taking part in the programme, supported by our huge network of businesses and friends. We have been joined this year by supporter sponsors Audacia and KPMG, and held our biggest ever Girl Tech Leeds event attend by more than 260 guests, including 160 year 8 girls from schools around Leeds.  

When we ask young people who their role models are, there are a fair share of answers naming footballers and YouTubers I’ve never heard of, but the most common answer we get is a parent/carer or family member, which is wonderful. But, if you live in one of the most deprived wards of the city, chances are that your parent or family members are not employed in the digital sector, so who do you go to when you have questions? 

Some of the most special moments this year have come from our events for the hardest to reach young people. In March we visited CATCH, which stands for Community Action To Create Hope. At their colourful headquarters in Harehills, Leeds they have created a safe space for the whole community, in particular for young people, and have a popular youth programme with over 1,000 children accessing their activities. Harehills is an area of Leeds facing significant deprivation with 74.2 per cent of households deprived in at least one dimension of the 2021 census. At our speed networking event with 14-16 year old young leaders at CATCH, volunteers from organisations including Aire Logic, BJSS, Boost Talent and Northcoders spent their evening answering questions about their journeys into the digital sector, and how to prepare for the next stage in their lives. We were all really impressed with the young leaders’ engagement and how insightful their questions were. One of the young people told us afterwards, “Considering I’m going into tech I really took on the advice of everyone.  They were really friendly and I’m grateful for this opportunity.” 

While the numbers of students we have reached and the evaluation statistics we produce for programmes like Growing Talent Digital Leeds are impressive, it’s the human impact that really inspires me when it’s time to start putting pen to paper and planning our next year of the programme. I take energy and inspiration from knowing that there are thousands of young people in the city who, like that young person at CATCH, may live in one of the most deprived areas of the city, but are grabbing every opportunity they can. The young people I meet are passionate and diligent about their future. Through volunteering at CATCH, attending our events, and paying close attention to the role models we connect them with, they show that they are keen to learn about everything their city has to offer them, just one mile from their doorstep 

Growing Talent Digital Leeds provides the framework to connect young people to opportunities in the city while supporting them to develop essential skills that are needed for the future of the sector. It is designed to develop a pipeline of talent for the city by targeting young people that do not currently see their place in these jobs, and the young people who do, but who do not have the cultural capital and exiting networks to support their entry to the sector. Working together we aim to break down barriers and address misconceptions to improve the diversity of the future workforce and ensure digital jobs are accessible to everyone. 

Please reach out to me if you want to explore adding social value and long lasting impact to your work. Suzie.bell@aheadpartnership.org.uk