Ada, the college bridging the digital skills gap - and giving young people a fighting chance

Students approaching Ada, the National College for Digital Skills in London, will see a building that is remarkably similar to the type they will spend their working lives in as digital workers. From the exterior to the workshops and classrooms, Ada is a new take on further education in the UK and an example of how the technology industry can discover and recruit a diverse workforce.

Now six years old, Ada has two campuses in London and Manchester, and as a further education (FE) college for digital skills, it has seen 1,300 young people pass through its doors to gain a technology education.

The college, which takes its name from technology pioneer Ada Lovelace, has a high performing, specialist 6^th form which has four pathways for leaders, pioneers, developers and creatives that will equip students with either a BTEC Level 3 National Diploma in Computing, a T Level in software development or A-Levels in Business Studies, Graphical Communication, Maths and Further Maths and Psychology. In addition, Ada trains technical apprenticeships for a wide range of organizations such as Bank of America, Deloitte and Clearscore. 

As an FE college, Ada is funded by the UK’s Department for Education, but also receives charitable donations from those who understand the importance of the college. CEO Mark Smith and his founding partner, Tom Fogden, opted for a further education college as it can create the most impact for the students. He says:

We wanted to be a bridge between education and employment. We started as a sixth form, as if you are going to alter the chances of young people from more deprived backgrounds, you need a longer period of time working with them, and it needs to be intensive.

Over half of the students (65%) come from ethnic minority backgrounds and 36% were receiving free school meals (a UK measure for being from a low income household). Smith says students don’t have to come from these backgrounds, but they are keen to have a high level of students from these demographics so that Ada creates social change. The focus of the college on digital skills is something new to me as a parent, but Smith says similar FE colleges exist for subjects like maths:

It is a model that really resonates with young people as it is somewhere they can go, and it will support them into a job.

Sadly, youth unemployment remains doggedly high in the UK as its economy struggles to grow following the decision to leave the European Union and macroeconomic challenges that have followed. Smith believes offshoring is increasing, while inflation, trade, and real wars have damaged business confidence. He says:

There has been a huge downturn in junior hires in technology. So for us, how can we give more of our students more experience so they set themselves apart when they do get an interview.

Many students would like to go on to digital apprenticeships following their time at Ada, however, Smith says there are too few digital apprenticeship opportunities. The college, itself is an apprenticeship education provider for software development, data analytics, cybersecurity, and agentic development.

Outcomes

The blend of different technology qualifications that Ada offers benefits students and potential employers. Despite the shortage of apprenticeships, Smith says many of the T-Level students get selected for an apprenticeship because they have completed work experience through the T-Level with a business. At the time we visited the college, 10 students had completed a placement with Amazon and all were joining the firm’s apprenticeship scheme. Smith adds:

It’s try before you buy.

Over half (60%) of students go on to university, most because there are not enough apprenticeships available. He says: 

93% of our alumni are in employment or education. Of those in employment 97% are earning greater than the mean graduate salary of £38,000. We are a model for harnessing tech as a tool for positive social mobility as most of our learners are going into good quality jobs.

It’s not all down to Ada and the students, though. The UK needs to undergo a cultural change to give young people, especially those from low-income backgrounds, a chance. Smith observes:

Employers always say they have a skills shortage, and yet when you give them that entry-level talent that could plug the shortage, they rarely take it.

He is not downbeat, though, and believes the current government is very focused on getting employers to invest more in education and will therefore incentivize the education sector and employers. Our interview took place before Israel and the USA began a war against Iran, and sparked yet more economic challenges for businesses as oil prices increased. 

Whatever the economic backdrop, the culture towards giving young people a chance has to change, he cites that accountancy and business advisory firm Deloitte provides 250 workplace opportunities to young people in the Netherlands from its Amsterdam office, while London provides just 10. He says:

In the Netherlands, it is expected that big business will open its doors to pupils; we haven’t had that expectation here.

Opening the classroom doors

Smith was a member of Teach First back in 2003, a programme under the then Labour government to get more high-flying graduates into classrooms. He taught history in London’s Bethnal Green area before moving into the commercial and technology sector as a product development leader at Lloyds Banking Group, but he says his time in the classroom left a lasting impression on him, and he returned to Teach First and began mentoring a young person from New Cross who really wanted to be a software developer. He says: 

It opened my eyes to the skills mismatch. In 2013, there were statistics that there were 100,000 technology vacancies yet only 3000 students nationally were studying computer science at A-Level.

He could see that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds had the talent to fill that skills gap and so created a business plan for Ada and raised £100,000 in philanthropic funding from two tech entrepreneurs. In 2014, government policy changed to support specialist FE colleges like Ada, which he describes as fortuitous, and in 2016 Ada threw open its classroom doors in Tottenham in North London before moving to the new campus near Victoria that we visited. 

CTO of global media firm PA Media David Henderson was so impressed with the talent the college provides he got involved and says: 

Ada impressed me because it combines high-quality teaching with a curriculum that reflects what employers are actually looking for. It also has a strong sense of purpose, particularly in its commitment to bringing in students from a wide range of backgrounds and creating opportunity through digital skills.

My take

From the moment I approached the college, it was clear this was something different. Enter the building, and you enter the technology world; this doesn’t feel like an old institution, but like the hub for an innovation team. As Smith took me around the studios, all crammed with the latest technology, I observed a cohort that was healthy in its diversity of gender and ethnicity. A lecture in the main hall was being hosted by Microsoft, which had brought along professionals who were not that much older than the students, creating a symbiotic connection of peers who were equal to one another, not from different eras.

Digital leaders looking to be part of the culture change that embraces and gives young people a chance could do worse than get involved with a college that was named in recognition of the woman who we all owe our digital careers to.