Newham Council and University of East London joined forces to accelerate the data economy and prepare for the skills of the future.
As part of the inaugural London Data Week, Newham Council and the University of East London (UEL) brought together leading data business leaders, teachers, education providers and young people to have some fun with data and share ideas about how to support the data economy in London.
The sessions followed the commitment made earlier this year by Newham Council through its Newham Sparks initiative to make the borough a leading destination for the data and digital sectors including the launch of London’s first Data Campus at East Ham Town Hall.
Teachers joined discussions with businesses and Council leaders on how to harness the transformative opportunity of data in education including how to equip young people with the skills and insight needed for the jobs of the future.
To bring to life the challenges ahead, there was also a virtual escape room that challenged Newham's young people to find ways out using their data skills.
Amit Shanker Assistant Chief Exec - Chief Digital Officer at Newham Council said: “Research shows that the data and digital industries will help us future proof our borough – above all in supporting our residents and young people to benefit from high quality local jobs while inspiring growth in businesses.
“The first London Data Week is a perfect time to bring together our leading voices in education and business to collaborate and ensure our young people have the skills they need for the jobs of the future and for them to have some fun using some of these essential data life skills.
“Our ambition is to ensure the borough can realise the full potential of data to create better futures for every resident especially our young people”.
Gaurav Malik at UEL commented: “In today's era, data plays a pivotal role as it continues to be generated at an unprecedented rate. These data points need to be analysed, cleaned and presented so stakeholders can make informed decisions. There is a real need in the job market for people who are expertly trained to model huge amounts of data, with demand for data-driven systems in all sectors increasing year-on-year. Our specialised courses in Data Analytics, Big Data and Data Science provide students with the in-depth knowledge and advanced skills that they will need to actively contribute to the development and design of these systems. We take pride in our partnership with Newham Sparks, which enables us to create valuable opportunities for our community in our home borough.”
Chris Howarth at Alteryx commented: “Whilst we all know the importance of data in today’s society, there is still a general shortage of data analysts and data scientists that are able to help extract the full value of that data. This presents the younger generation with a fantastic opportunity to use tools like Alteryx to build the skills that are in demand across all industries and stand them in good stead for a rewarding career. It’s fantastic to see how easily they can pick up the technology and very quickly start to produce outcomes that will transition into the real-world and provide value to businesses and the public sector in Newham and beyond”.
Newham Sparks was launched in 2021 and released research in 2022 conducted by Newham Council in collaboration with University College London’s (UCL) Institute for Global Prosperity quantifying the growth opportunity for the borough, London and the UK. It found that currently in Newham the data sector generates £23.1 million in gross added value. If the borough capitalises on all of the potential opportunities from the data sector, this could increase by over four-fold to £104 million by 2035 including the creation of more than 5,500 new jobs in the data sector.