Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy
Closing Gibraltar’s IT skills gap
The Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy is fast becoming Gibraltar’s go-to place to learn new and exciting skills. And it’s helping address an important need. Currently, a lack of appropriate training opportunities is resulting in businesses struggling to fill vacancies for a range of technical jobs from helpdesk staff to cybersecurity practitioners.
Our grant of just under £50,000 means the Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy has been able to launch its first full-time Microsoft Systems Administrator and Help Desk Course. This four-month training qualifies people to be Microsoft-certified technicians, helping address Gibraltar’s IT skills gap. Students gain five specialised Microsoft qualifications and carry out a work placement, making them highly employable in the technology sector.
- Everyone who takes the Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy’s Microsoft Systems Administrator and Help Desk Course will gain 5 Microsoft certifications.
- So far, the course has a 100% pass rate.
- The Academy also runs a range of other courses including coding for young people, cybersecurity, and digital skills for older people.
Next steps in tech
In January 2023, the first 13 participants started the course, having gone through an application and interview process to receive a subsidised place – thanks to the Kusuma Trust grant.
The course was designed in consultation with the gaming sector to ensure it’s relevant for Gibraltar’s current job market. This initial course is likely to just be the start. It gives people a solid foundation on which to build their skills in many different areas of the technology sector. Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy says the course will act as a launch pad for even higher skilled jobs in the industry, such as programmers and network specialists.
“We are so grateful for the generous donation from Kusuma Trust. One of the pillars of the Academy was to upskill adults and allow them to attain high skilled jobs within Gibraltar’s technology sector and this will allow us to do just that.”
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