Code Division - Ukrainian Digital Empowerment

Many thanks to the following for making our first Ukrainian Digital Empowerment course possible                  Thank you to Marise at Scottish Power                  Thank you to Nick at Avant Assessment                  Thank you to Neil at Blatant                  Thank you to Irfan at Istech Solutions                   Thank you to the Clutha Trust

All our courses now have business english resources as well as AI translation support

Check out our Current Courses

Read our latest brochure

A ROADMAP TO EMPOWER REFUGEES AND BUILD YOUR TALENT PIPELINE

Click on the brochure to download it

brochure

How we can all help

At present there are over 24000 displaced Ukrainians in Scotland, 81% of whom are women.

Currently most of this community are living in social housing and nearly 6000 in temporary accommodation deemed ‘unsuitable’ by a recent Red Cross Report. Just under 80% of this community are educated to degree level with many having previous work experience in professional roles and possess the digital skills sought by Scottish employers.

Yet the majority are unemployed or underemployed and remain dependents on benefits. Unable to overcome major obstacles we are effectively these skilled refugees from work, at the same time we know the positive contributions these individuals can make (Ukrainian Refugees impact: Scottish Govt). This means that many Ukrainians are facing homelessness and an increasingly hostile environment surrounding the cost of housing refugees and a UK Government now proposing the Refugee Ban Bill.

There is still no long-term housing plan for over 1000 Ukrainians currently on the MS Ambition which again would result in individual families scattered throughout Scotland in alternative temporary accommodation.

Training

Book our specialist training and consultancy services. Profits go to supporting this program.

Time

Offer your valuable time & knowledge, provide industry talks or volunteer to help.

Sponsorship

Your organisation could sponsor a new course or sponsor individual learners.

Practical

We need laptops/PCs/lunches to help run the program again.

Job Opportunities

Consider learners for jobs in your organisation.

To find out more and how you can help, contact:


digitalempowerment@codedivision.co.uk

Design Process of Our Courses

Our team of experts utilised the foundations of design thinking in the process of building our Women Returners program

The Goal

A 5-week face-to-face training program for 29 Ukrainians funded by the Women Returner Program providing SQA Data Analysis qualifications and developing skills in Communication, Collaboration, Critical, and Creative Thinking.

Expertise

Program lead, Bianca Peel, with her background in social emotional learning, infused design thinking into the program which was delivered alongside Sian-Day Lewis and Emily Fais, teaching Data Skills and Business English respectively.

Empathy

Design thinking's human-centric approach promotes a safe learning environment, leading to an increase in confidence, self-awareness, and productivity.

Challenge

To prepare learners for digital roles within budget and time constraints, with the ability to secure employment and effectively communicate their value to the company.

Ideate

Bianca's team created a program promoting innovative, empathetic problem-solving skills through diverse and imaginative thinking, equipping learners with the knowledge required to succeed in their careers.

Prototype

To remain flexible for various language abilities and life circumstances, the Women Returners program underwent changes and improvements over five weeks, which were evaluated through Avant Assessment (Business English) and SQA (Data Skills).

Testing

The program underwent continual refinement throughout, based on regular feedback from learners and employers, in an iterative process of extensive testing and adaptation.

Scottish Power Women Returners Course

More Info

Data Boost and Other Courses

Read more

Scottish Power Returner Program

Scottish Power developed the program to help returners refresh their existing skills and knowledge while building their confidence in a working environment through a structured pathway.

Success Stories

The brilliant news is that 3 of our learners (Anastasiia, Maryna and Alona) are now successfully on the program and working for Scottish Power.

Data Boost

Thanks to funding from our partners at the Data Lab, we were able to design and deliver an additional 3-week SQA accredited course for Ukrainian learners in the South East of Scotland.

About our course

The course was designed to help support learners into a variety of digital roles, concentrating on essential Business English and Data Analysis skills on how to utilise business applications to improve productivity within a variety of professional roles.

We connected with the DWP and third sector organisations in Fife, the Lothians, Ayrshire, and the Borders as well as travelling to meet communities of displaced Ukrainians on the cruise ships MS Victoria and MS Ambition.

This engagement helped shape the design and delivery of our shorter specialist courses in Digital Marketing, Adobe Photoshop and ITA funded: Introduction to Python and Java. We welcomed Ukrainians to join learners from all over Scotland to upskill in these courses.

Talent Directory

We are determined to support our learners into good jobs that will give them the best chance of a fair start.

Collaboration

Organisations need to collaborate in identifying solutions to this unfolding crisis.

Over the last 8 months we have worked closely with the Ukrainian community in Glasgow and hubs throughout Scotland. We delivered a successful learner centered program that combined trauma informed learning, Business English, 4Cs training and digital skills. We were also able to offer short digital upskilling courses but although we have a proven track record, we are no longer able to offer these programs as there is no longer the funding.

To get in touch with our team, please email:
digitalempowerment@codedivision.co.uk

ENGAGE

The first step is engagement to initiate collaboration between organisations. Explore ways to reframe the problem, start to ideate solutions and iterate towards better answers.

FUND

These programs need funding. Organisations can support this through sponsorship, community benefits money or indirectly by booking training with us.

DESIGN

We need to design flexible and inclusive programs that are people-centred. Working on program design together organisations can ensure these are tailored to meet their skills shortages.

SUPPORT

Corporate and community support we receive makes all the difference. You could support through mentoring, workshops, providing work experience (internships) and to contribute to program delivery.

EMPLOY

Our end goal is to support learners with good quality jobs. That could be offering them positions directly or adapting existing programs to be more flexible (Returner, Apprenticeships or Graduate).