At Sussex, we can support you to develop your digital skills and capabilities through resources, tools and fully funded programmes, including the Career Lab Digital Skills taster with Creative Process Digital.

Many jobs have a digital element, and it is predicted that by 2040, 90% of all jobs will require an element of digital skills. Currently, they are required in at least 82% of online advertised vacancies in the UK.

The ability to use Microsoft Office platforms such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint counts as a digital skill and is commonly required in jobs across all skill levels including entry-level graduate roles. During your degree, you may have already gained extensive experience of other productivity software tools such as Google products, Discord, Dropbox, Trello to name but a few. 

Roles that utilise digital skills on average pay higher salaries than roles that don’t. Overall, roles requiring digital skills pay 29% (£8,300 per year) more than those that do not. To maximise their chances of success in the digital economy, job seekers must develop their baseline digital skills and develop more specific skills. Importantly, these specific digital skills are not solely required in the tech sector but are in demand across all sectors of the economy. This may include tools such as;

• Adobe creative programmes for designers
• Computer-aided design for engineers and manufacturers
• Customer relationship management software for sales and marketing
• Computer programming and networking for IT professionals

Women are underrepresented in both completing digital qualifications and occupying professional digital roles, comprising only 17% of people working in the tech sector and only 9.5% of student cohorts completing a computer science A-Level. There are plenty of ways to improve your digital skills and boost your confidence with technology during your time at Sussex.

How can I develop my digital skills?

Depending upon the skills that you are interested in developing, there are thousands of free online resources that can help you, as well as fully-funded opportunities at Sussex through our Career Lab scheme:

1. Career Lab: Digital Skills Taster Sessions (fully-funded short course over half a day to develop your digital and creative skills. Open to Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 undergraduate students)
2. Digital Skills Accelerator programme (free digital skills diploma for recent graduates, worth £2,600) 
3. Free access to LinkedIn Learning, as a current student at Sussex. Just log on with your Sussex email address
4. CodeFirstGirls (UK’s largest provider of free coding courses for women)
5. OpenLearn (free online courses run by The Open University) 
6. Google Digital Garage (free online learning created and designed by Google)
7. Coursera (choose from a large selection of subjects and certified courses) 
8. LearnMyWay (free courses to learn digital skills to stay safe and connected)
9. Microsoft Outlook training