Kent-based search agency Reflect Digital is encouraging schools across the South East to sign up for its annual digital skills conference, which aims to inspire students about the opportunities in the digital industry.
The conference, Aspiration Digital, which was founded in 2018 and previously held at Maidstone Grammar School for Girls, is being held at Canterbury Christ Church University on 5 January 2024.
The digital skills conference aims to inspire and educate the next generation of digital leaders, covering topics from development and creative design to AI, marketing activation (SEO, paid media, customer experience, social media) and how to run a business.
The event will host a ‘Routes into Digital’ panel with speakers from apprenticeship providers, universities, entrepreneurs and relevant training providers discussing how students can access digital careers post-sixth form, regardless of their next steps.
Attendees will also be offered the chance to mix with some of the biggest and most innovative sponsors, giving students the ability to talk to business owners, digital communities including BIMA, Digital Women and B-Digital, plus training providers and more all within the main exhibition hall.
Ex-attendees have gone on to secure fantastic degree-apprenticeships, internships and university placements off the back of the events programme. The day even offers a handful of students the opportunity to ‘win a week of work experience’ with each of the event’s sponsors.
Previous years have seen guest speakers from agencies including Red Ant, StrategiQ and Capital Content, as well as Becky Simms, CEO at Reflect Digital, and Jo Samuel, course director at Canterbury Christ Church University.
Of those students who attended Aspiration Digital in March 2023, 75% said they are now considering a career in digital and 76% felt that they know enough about how to enter a career in digital following the event.
Becky Simms said: “We are so excited to be hosting our fifth Aspiration Digital event once more, but this time at Canterbury Christchurch University, meaning we can house many more students and schools.
“The aim of the event is to educate sixth form students about the varying digital career paths, the types of roles, the ways to get into the industry and more than anything, to inspire them with some of our industry’s best speakers.
“The students will be hearing from a real variety of speakers, from those a year or two into their careers through to senior directors with global leadership experience.
“This event goes a little way in solving a challenge I see across education. We need to build more links between business and students, helping to bridge the gap between the curriculum and its real-world application.
“Helping to give the students a goal to strive for, to inspire them to consider the many different career paths possible.”
Picture: Becky Simms, CEO at Reflect Digital, is joined by Helen Grant, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Maidstone and The Weald; Deborah Stanley, headteacher at Maidstone Grammar School for Girls; Neil Walker, assistant headteacher at Maidstone Grammar School for Girls; and students (2019)
