First published in March 2017 on Ayrshire College Blog

On Tuesday 21 March, 150 people from the private, public and education sectors took part in our Ayrshire Bytes: Data Changes Everything conference at our Kilmarnock Campus. Vice Principal Jackie Galbraith explains why we applied to be part of DataFest17.

We were very proud to have been approved as an official fringe event of DataFest17 – the only one outside the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. DataFest17 was a week-long festival of data innovation from 20-24 March 2017 which showcased Scotland’s leading role in data on the international stage.

Leading figures from a range of industry sectors shared their views on how data and digital are changing everything we do. They included:

• Gillian Docherty, chief executive of The Data Lab (the Innovation Centre which organises DataFest) who addressed the theme of the conference by taking us on a journey to 2035 and shared examples of how data will have changed our lives. You can watch Gillian’s fascinating talk here:

• Brendan Faulds, former chief executive of the Digital Health & Care Institute (the Innovation Centre for health and care) who told the story of health and social care services in Scotland, the part data has played in its past and present, and the role it will play in shaping its future
• Vicky Brock, chief executive of Clear Returns, who demonstrated how to use data to influence shopper behaviour
• Richard Millar, senior manufacturing systems engineer at Spirit Aerosystems, who talked about the factory of the future
• Craig Hume, managing director of Kilmarnock based Utopia Computers, who explained why honesty and openness are key to a more secure digital world.

Developing Ayrshire’s Digital Talent

Our ambition for Ayrshire is to enable its people, businesses and communities to have the skills to take advantage of the potential of digital technologies.

Central to that are students on digital and computing courses at the College, thirty of whom will take part in the conference. Their skills will be vital to enabling companies in every sector of the economy to benefit from developments like big data, the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0. The Scottish Government reported this month that an additional 12,800 digital skills roles are needed each year in Scotland. As well as in the digital industry, these jobs will be in sectors of the economy like finance, manufacturing, retail, health and tourism.

These jobs will only be filled if increasing numbers of people choose to develop the skills required and we are working hard to inspire more young people at school to choose courses which develop digital skills. Our hugely successful Coderdojo Ayrshire computing coding clubs for seven to seventeen year-olds have introduced hundreds of primary and secondary age young people to programming and developing apps.

On International Girls in ICT Day on 27 April, in partnership with SmartSTEMs, we are taking our #ThisAyrshireGirlCan campaign to a new level with a Technology Workout for 120 first and second year secondary school girls. As well as hearing from inspirational female speakers, the girls will take part in a wide range of interactive workshops led by industry and take part in our award-winning CoderDojo Ayrshire.

Supported by funding from the Developing the Young Workforce Ayrshire regional group, Ayrshire College has teamed up with Apps for Good, an open source technology education movement, to equip young people to research, design and make digital products and take them to market. Most children are consumers of technology. Apps for Good aims for young people to become makers using technology. Aimed at pupils in third year at secondary school this project will provide a pathway for young people prior to making their subject choices.

For fourth year pupils looking at their options for fifth and sixth year at secondary school the IT: Software Development Foundation Apprenticeship will be delivered in college two afternoons a week from August 2017. Find out more here.

Ayrshire – byte or be bitten

There is no doubt that data and the digital technologies that enable companies to analyse, visualise and act on it are disrupting the way we work, learn and play.

If you would like to speak to us about your digital skills needs, or you would like to support the work we are doing to encourage young people to pursue digital careers, please contact Moira Birtwistle at moira.birtwistle@ayrshire.ac.uk or Ged Freel at ged.freel@ayrshire.ac.uk