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Tech City UK Launces Digital Business Academy to Meet Britain’s Demand for Digital SkillsFree access to world-leading digital courses from UCL, Cambridge Judge Business School and Founder Centric for anyone aspiring to start, grow or join a digital business. Tech City UK in partnership with University College London (UCL) has announced the launch of the Digital Business Academy, the world’s first government-supported online learning platform to provide digital and business skills for anyone aspiring to start, grow or join a digital business. The programme is open to all UK residents and requires no pre-qualification. The Digital Business Academy brings together world-class educational institutions and industry experts to give anyone in the UK free access to digital business skills. Over 1,500 people have already signed up during the pre-registration phase to online courses from Cambridge University Judge Business School, University College London (UCL), and Founder Centric, a grass roots startup school that works with the likes of Seedcamp and Oxford University. The programme is launched in beta and the platform is powered by UCL’s online learning platform UCLeXtend. Every business today is digital and demand for a more digitally skilled workforce is ever more acute. A recent report [1] suggests that Britain will need 745,000 additional workers with digital skills to meet the rising demand from employers between 2013 and 2017. Tech City UK has developed the Digital Business Academy as a direct response to this need. It is the first time a government-supported MOOC (massive open online course) has been created to give people of all ages and backgrounds the opportunity to excel in digital business. Over 35 industry partners including the BBC, O2 Think Big, Unruly, Ogilvy Labs and Microsoft Ventures have endorsed the programme. Our partners offer tangible opportunities to course participants in the form of paid internships, mentorship, specialist content, and free startup support such as access to loans and free co-working space. Baroness Joanna Shields, chair of Tech City UK and Digital Adviser to the Prime Minister, comments, “Tech City UK’s Digital Business Academy represents a new revolution in education providing access to world leading universities and great digital minds for free…the Digital Business Academy will open up digital opportunities to people irrespective of age, background or pre-qualifications. For anyone who wants to learn, we provide the practical skills you need to start your own digital business or to thrive in any digital company”. Digital Business Academy courses include business development, marketing, branding and finance, and features videos, reading and hands-on practical exercises. Each course will take between 3-6 weeks to complete. To register and conduct the online course, you can sign up here. Click here to read the full press release. [1] The Future of Digital Skills Needs in the UK Economy, O2 & Development Economics, 2014
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Creativeworks London is one of four Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to develop strategic partnerships with creative businesses and cultural organisations, to strengthen and diversify their collaborative research activities and increase the number of arts and humanities researchers actively engaged in research-based knowledge exchange.