Meet Your Future: Digitober and the Digital Sector
Meet Your Future is all about giving you a taste of careers that you could go into. This blog post features resources to read and watch, tasks you could do to gain insight and experience, and some things you could think about. It’s a great way to hear from people who work in the sector, learn about job roles and what they might be like, and get thinking about your future.
In the past, Meet Your Future has included work shadowing opportunities, online webinar events, and in person visits from businesses and employers across Greater Manchester. This year, we’re going to be hosting Meet Your Future articles on GMACS, as well as live events and a huge range of other opportunities to experience the varied world of work in GM. So, follow GMACS on Twitter and Instagram, as well as keeping an eye right here on the GMACS website, for more details of these events as they come out.
In this Meet Your Future article, we’re celebrating Digitober, a festival of digital technology happening across Greater Manchester. Digitober is all about the exciting things happening in the digital sector in GM. This includes things like the digital inclusion strategy so everyone can get online, improving digital infrastructure, as well as celebrating the successes of businesses across the digital and technology industries.
If you’re interested in the digital sector, these resources, tasks, and discussion points are the perfect way to meet your future…
Greater Manchester’s Digitober events
Digitober 2022 was kicked off by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham. Watch his short introductory video below.
Careers Task: Think about what the Mayor is saying in this video. What does he say about how important the digital sector is to Greater Manchester? Have you noticed any changes to digital technology near you, like your school or college getting new computers or software, or a visit from a tech company? Does this sound like an exciting thing you’d like to be a part of?
Digitober is packed full of other events and opportunities you could be a part of. They’ve also got some blogs and case studies about digital inclusion for you to read.
Watch some previous Meet Your Future recordings
We’ve been running Meet Your Future events for a number of years now – so we have a bank of recordings from live events that you can watch later. We’ve included a couple of these resources below that you can watch to get a sense of what a career in digital could be like.
Watch this recording of a Meet Your Future session from last year with Parul Singh, a Senior Javascript Recruiter. In this video, she tells us all about getting into the tech and digital sector. There’s lots of great information in the video, including debunking stereotypes and common misconceptions as well as why tech is a great place to work. There’s also some information about companies that you might not realise are based in Greater Manchester. And, Parul also tells us about her own slightly unusual pathway into working in tech.
Careers Task: Think about the education pathways you’re considering at the moment – would they be a traditional way into tech, as Parul explains, or a non-traditional one? Does the tech workplace sound like something you’d like? Have you heard of any of the companies she mentions that are based in GM? Have you ever bought anything from them?
In this Meet Your Future session, meet Kieran Wilkinson, a Technical Analyst from Koder.ly. He gives a talk about careers in the digital sector, including some info about industries that use digital technology that you may not have thought about. He also tells us about his pathway into digital through a degree apprenticeship and how he moved from being a software engineer onto a more project management role.
Careers Task: Click here to access the session card for this event, featuring some tasks you could do get a better sense of what a career in digital could be like. Did any of the industries he mentioned surprise you? Think about Kieran’s journey into software engineering with a degree apprenticeship pathway. Does this sound like something you’d be interested in?
Check out some interviews with real people working in the digital sector
Together with Digital Advantage, we’ve produced some short videos with information about working in a range of careers. These interview shorts are packed full of insights from real people working in each sector. We’ve asked them all about what each day is like and how they got into their current roles, so you’ll get a real sense of what it might be like to do their job.
Watch each of these videos and think about whether this is a job role in the digital sector that you’d be interested in. Then, watch the task video for each one and try to complete the task. You might need to ask a teacher or parent/guardian for help or sit down with a group of friends to do it together!
Meet Temitope Faro, a software engineer who works as a technical lead.
Careers Task: Watch this video to see Temitope’s careers task. In the video, he asks you to embark on an exciting web design task! Why not have a go?
Meet Siân O’Connell, a digital studio manager for a marketing agency in Greater Manchester.
Careers Task: Watch this video to see Siân’s careers task for you – to come up with a plan for a website build. Research what roles you’ll need to build a website, then schedule in their time.
Meet Georgina Nicklin, a graphic designer for Peel L&P.
Careers Task: See this video for Georgina’s careers task for you – it’s all about audience personas, a handy way to target your design work.
Find out more about the digital sector on the sector page on GMACS. This page has information on some key employers across Greater Manchester, as well as some popular job roles that you could go into.
Discussion topics
A big part of thinking about your future is thinking about the kinds of problems people in certain sectors are trying to solve. By doing this, you’ll get an understanding of whether you might like to also work on these problems. So, have a think about some of these topics – you could even write down your answers so you’ve got a record. Then, reflect on whether you enjoyed the process of thinking about these things. Did it excite you? Were you interested?
Digital inclusion
Digital inclusion is all about how people access the internet and how easy it is to access the services they need. So, think about how you currently get online. Are there any challenges or barriers that you face? How could you fix them? Think about any recent improvements or changes in how you get online. Have they made things better?
If you’re worried about digital inclusion, read this blog post to see how to get online in GM.
Digital infrastructure
Digital infrastructure underpins so much of what we do online. It’s about what phone you use, how it connects to the internet, what other devices you have. What recent developments have you noticed? Are you using any new devices or technology? This could mean things like getting faster internet or 5G, or a smart TV.
Digital skills check
As well as how we get online, it’s also important to understand why we use the internet. Think about your digital skills and the main things you do on the internet. Do you feel like you’re able to do the things you want to online? Are you good at using the internet? Do you find it easy to research things? Do you know what sites are trustworthy? Do you know how to keep yourself safe online?
For more info on digital skills, check out the GMACS blog on how to play it safe on the internet.
That’s all for this Meet Your Future on Digitober – don’t forget to let us know on Twitter or Instagram how you found it.
