Digital Skills Council

The Digital Skills Council will provide a focal point for the liaison between government and industry to address the digital skills shortage and quality deficit in the UK.

DSIT is currently conducting a wholesale review of all external advisory forums, including the Digital Skills Council. At this time any activity with the Council is on hold as we work to refresh and re-evaluate all external councils that work with the department, including reviewing their remits, structure and strategy.

Role of the group

The Council will bring together government and industry to drive forward industry led action, which addresses industry’s current and future demand for digital skills

The Council will address the digital skills challenges facing employers by amplifying existing activity, and supporting industry to:

  • promote routes into digital careers and opportunities for the labour market to re-skill and up-skill to meet current and future employer needs

  • increase awareness of resources that enable pathways into digital and digitally enabled jobs for workers in non digital roles

  • promote mechanisms to provide increasingly diverse access to digital roles and digitally enabled roles

Membership

The Digital Skills Council is chaired by Phil Smith, CBE FREng, Chairman of IQE PLC.

The Council membership spans industry, the public sector and academia and benefits from  a broad range of background and expertise to help drive forward industry led action.

Council members:

Chair

  • Phil Smith CBE FREng, Chairman IQE PLC

Council members

  • John Midgely, Director of Public Policy, Amazon Web Services
  • Chintan Patel, CTO, Cisco
  • Tim Smith, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Multiverse
  • Hayaatun Sillem, CEO, Royal Academy of Engineering
  • Hugh Milward, General Manager for Corporate, External and Legal, Microsoft
  • Katie Gallagher, Director, Manchester Digital
  • Liz Williams, CEO, Future Dot Now
  • Mark Radford, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer, Health Education England
  • Sheila Flavell, COO, FDM GROUP
  • Susan Mulcahy, Director, Imperial College London
  • Katie O’Donovan, Director of Public Policy, Google UK
  • John Cope, Director of Strategy, Policy and Public Affairs, UCAS

Government departments attending

  • Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
  • Department for Education
  • Department for Work and Pensions

Reports

Contents