Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 July to Question 72907 and the Answer of 17 July 2020 to Question 72907 on Cybercrime and Digital Technology, how many individuals have completed digital skills courses through the (a) degree conversion course programmes in data science and artificial intelligence, (b) Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund covering the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership areas, (c) Digital Skills Innovation Fund and The Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund, (d) Six Local Digital Skills Partnerships, (e) The Grenfell Digital Skills programme and (f) Code4000’s Coding in Prisons programme in the most recent period for which figures are available.

(a) degree conversion course programmes in data science and artificial intelligence

No individuals have completed courses in the degree conversion course programme in data science and artificial intelligence announced on 10 June 2020. The first students in the programme will start in Autumn this year.

(b) Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund covering the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership areas

The Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund is a £3 million fund aiming to boost digital skills training through short, responsive courses that will help employers recruit to hard to fill digital roles. The fund is estimated to train 741 individuals, with 158 courses completed to date, including:

• 50 course completions within cloud engineering

• 48 course completions in software development

• 24 courses completions in digital marketing

• 19 course competitions in DevOps

• 16 course completion in Linux engineering

(c) Digital Skills Innovation Fund and The Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund

The Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund was a £400,000 fund supporting older and disabled people, particularly those in rural areas. The 3 pilot projects impacted a total of 1672 individuals, including:

• 1094 digital learners in the Living Smart Homes project in West Essex

• 55 patients in end of life care, their carers and patient care volunteers in the Weldmar Hospicecare Trust

• 523 users of the Down’s Syndrome Association’s HealthSwap app

The Digital Skills Innovation Fund is a £1.1m fund supporting underrepresented groups or people from disadvantaged backgrounds get into digital roles or further training. 733 individuals have completed or nearly completed training from four pilot projects, including:

• The Heart of South West pilot helped 194 individuals over 12 months retrain and prepare for or advance a career in digital, primarily supporting women in small businesses. It focused on the 20% most deprived wards in the region.

• Lancashire’s programme has 105 participants, who have completed or near completed women in business workshops, digital marketing, and IT Ready training. The programme is supporting unemployed residents from disadvantaged wards.

• Sheffield City Region and Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire’s pilot supported women and autistic people gain demand-led digital skills. The pilot had 246 participants.

• West of England’s programme supported women, particularly those living in deprived neighbourhoods, acquire skills for digital roles. The programme had 188 participants, with 28 completing a formal, recognised training course, 24 receiving advice and guidance on accessing digital jobs, and 166 completing ‘taster’ or other introductory sessions.

(d) Six Local Digital Skills Partnerships

DCMS provides £75,000 per year to fund a Regional Coordinator, rather than training provision, in each Local Digital Skills Partnership. Regional Coordinators play an important role within the Local Enterprise Partnership/ Combined Authority to bring together cross-sector partners to co-design and deliver provision aligned to local needs, tackling local digital skills gaps, advancing digital inclusion, while contributing to regional economic growth.

(e) The Grenfell Digital Skills programme

The Grenfell Digital Skills Programme went live in November 2019. So far 292 sessions from 10 courses have been attended by 75 individuals.

(f) Code4000’s Coding in Prisons programme

DCMS provided a £100,000 grant to Code4000 to support their coding workshops in prisons. The funding supported 90 learners as follows:

• 65 prisoners in the workshop at HMP Humber

• 25 prisoners in the workshop at HMP Holme House

• 5 of these prisoners were also supported on release at the pilot support hub in Sheffield