Tech City UK and UCL launch Digital Business Academy

Skills gap

Tech City UK is teaming up with University College London (UCL) to launch a government-funded online learning platform for digital skills.

The Digital Business Academy aims to narrow the UK tech skills gap, which a recent report from O2 suggested will reach 750,000 unfilled roles by 2017.

The joint project from UCL and Whitehall's startup marketing arm, Tech City UK, will provide a free course in digital business skills for anyone who wants to learn, with input from various industry experts and educational institutions.

Speaking at the Academy's launch, Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Ensuring that our people and businesses have world-class digital skills so they can compete in the economy of the future is a key part of our long-term economic plan to back business, create jobs and secure a brighter future for Britain.

"We have put coding into the school curriculum and our rollout of superfast broadband, backed by over 1 billion Government investment in our digital infrastructure, has now passed more than 1.5 million homes and businesses and is reaching 40,000 more each week."

According to Tech City UK, over 1,500 people have already signed up to pre-registration for online courses provided by Cambridge University Judge Business School, UCL and Founder Centric. Courses covers areas such as business development, marketing, branding and finance.

Caroline Preece

Caroline has been writing about technology for more than a decade, switching between consumer smart home news and reviews and in-depth B2B industry coverage. In addition to her work for IT Pro and Cloud Pro, she has contributed to a number of titles including Expert Reviews, TechRadar, The Week and many more. She is currently the smart home editor across Future Publishing's homes titles.

You can get in touch with Caroline via email at caroline.preece@futurenet.com.