Announced last week, UK based domain name registry Nominet launched a new GBP 400,000 digital work experience programme aimed at imparting digital knowledge to young underprivileged adults with a view to eventually providing them with future employment possibilities. The new programme, officially called Nominet Digital Neighbourhood, follows Nominet’s pledge last month to invest GBP 600,000 across several initiatives that serve similar causes.
The Nominet Digital Neighbourhood programme has been set up to coach young individuals between the ages of 18 to 24 in creative digital skills such as social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and Google AdWords, among others. According to Nominet, after attending an initial three day training course, the enrollees will then be placed at local small businesses for a two week paid internship. Once there, they can utilize the skills they picked up from the programme to work on the digital needs of their temporary employers.
The UK’s digital skill gap is ever-widening, with recent government estimates citing that the shortage of digitally skilled professionals in the country is causing the British economy to miss out on approximately GBP 63 billion a year. With that in mind, the CEO of Nominet, Russell Haworth, had this to say:
We want to play our part in helping to fill the UK’s digital skills gap. By training young local talent and connecting them with real businesses in their area who need support with their online endeavours, both are able to develop and prosper. By offering paid work placements and training expenses to the young people, we think the programme goes the extra mile towards valuing the candidates’ time and commitment and ensures that the training is relevant and accessible.
The Nominet Digital Neighbourhood programme hopes to reach 175 young adults during its first operational year and has collaborated with creative network Levity to conduct its training sessions in London, Cardiff, Leeds and Glasgow between the months of July and November.