Careers scheme to help pupils from special school to get digital jobs

Eight schools across Greater Manchester are taking part in a new employability programme that will help teenagers aged 16-18 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to get digital jobs.

‘Digital Inc.’ will provide each school with 10 days of employer-led support, with experts from local digital companies coming in to classrooms to take students through a business start-up process and talk about how they themselves got a job in the creative digital sector.

A total of 80 students will take part in the programme and 16 will then be offered a supported internship at a newly created agency – ‘Digital Inc.’ – where they will work on real life digital briefs. The scheme aims to increase employer confidence, supporting digital businesses in Manchester to provide meaningful opportunities and progression to students with special educational needs and disabilities. 

Head of Key Stage 5 at North Ridge High School in Blackley, Elaine Redpath, from Middleton, has been involved in running the scheme.

She said: “We’ve run the Digital Advantage project before and it was an incredible success on so many levels, so we’re really looking forward to getting involved again this year. Last time, the trainers created a work-based environment and our students responded with enthusiasm and real creativity. The trainer built strong relationships with each student and this helped them to design an app which came second place in the Digital Advantage awards. 

“This year 10 more students will be involved and after the project we’re hoping some of them will become North Ridge High School’s own ‘Digital Technicians’ as part of our Key Stage 5 work experience programme. This will involve students support teaching staff within ICT lessons and projects and carrying out basic maintenance on our ICT equipment.”

Funded by the Careers & Enterprise Company, Manchester City Council, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Digital Inc. was set up to plug the digital skills gap in Manchester and address issues around employing people with disabilities. 

Recent research from the Office for National Statistics shows that the UK employment rate for people with disabilities is 51.3% - significantly lower than the employment rate for people without disabilities, which is 81.4%.

Despite this, the Department for Education admitted in their recent Careers Strategy that ‘Careers advice for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can often be poor and lacking in aspiration.’

Digital Inc. hopes to change this. In the past, students with special needs have taken part in its sister scheme, POP (pop-up digital agency) - a flagship 5-day Digital Advantage training programme - working alongside students from mainstream schools, with great results. But this is the first time a dedicated employability programme for SEND schools has been set up. 

Andy Lovatt, Managing Director of Digital Advantage, which delivers Digital Inc. said: “People with special educational needs experience significantly lower employment rates than mainstream students. At the same time there is a digital skills crisis which is costing Manchester’s economy millions every year. I’d like to ask the city’s digital sector whether they are looking hard enough for talent? What percentage of their workforce has special educational needs? Digital Inc. seeks to help talented teenagers from special needs schools get great digital jobs and also support employers that are keen to find the best recruits.”

Marie English, internship manager at Redwood School, a secondary special school in Rochdale that took part in POP (pop-up digital agency) last year, said: “I was impressed with the functional aspects of the programme and how it helped students to set up a viable business. The trainer had really high expectations of our students. There was no sense of giving them the answers because they had special needs.

“This meant the students raised their game - they gained much more than just work experience.  Their confidence grew and they felt important and empowered because they all had valuable job roles within the leisure app business they’d created.”

Digital Inc. will run at various other schools in Hulme, Levenshulme, Didsbury, Gorton, Wythenshawe and Chorlton.