- Accelerating work on advancing digital skills development
across UK Defence.
- Delivering skills development and training to thousands of
personnel across UK.
- Transforming digital skills across the whole workforce for
military personnel and civilians.
Personnel across the Ministry of Defence will benefit from
enhanced digital skills, as a result of a new partnership with
Microsoft UK.
Accelerating digital learning at scale and pace, the programme
will support The Digital Skills for Defence (DS4D) programme,
helping transform the digital skills across the whole workforce;
military, civilian, digital professionals and leaders.
This partnership will help upskill the MOD workforce through
deeper collaboration with Microsoft UK, supporting the
Government’s priority to grow the economy. The key elements are:
-
Supporting the workforce in enabling training for Microsoft
products and services.
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Helping to raise awareness of additional skills programs and
resources that align with DS4D’s training objectives and
support the programme’s skills and development pathways.
-
Offering shadowing opportunities for Senior MOD staff to
foster a culture of sharing best practice and adopting
innovative digital approaches.
Earlier in the year, the programme hosted an event at the
Microsoft Innovation Centre in London. It was attended by senior
leaders in Defence and aimed to get them thinking about the
changes needed to transform the wider Defence culture, increase
levels of curiosity and create a step change in the ability to a
work collaboratively across Defence.
The importance of Digital skills was a major theme of the day and
it was clear that this is a topic that impacts everyone from the
Chief of the Defence Staff through to a ‘day one’ recruit.
At the event, Claire Fry, Director Functional Integration
commented on the need to ensure that Defence is digitally ready
for the future:
Our ambition is to deliver and then continuously adapt a critical
capability uplift for Defence through the delivery of a world
class digital skills education programme for the whole workforce,
our leaders and for digital professionals. This is fundamental to
retraining our advantage and keeping ahead of our competition.
Our partnership with companies like Microsoft enables us to bring
in leading edge digital learning for Defence, I’m
delighted to have them on board.
The DS4D programme is a key driver in delivering critical digital
skills capability uplift, for defence leaders, digital
professionals and the whole Military and Civilian workforce. This
is fundamental in building and retaining operational and business
advantage, keeping up with and ahead of the competition. The
ambition of the programme goes beyond education by looking to
transform the learning culture and the way Defence works
collaboratively.
There are also several other collaborative projects that will be
developed to support the whole force at MOD to increase their
digital skills and knowledge. Microsoft joins other key partners in
supporting the MOD in transforming the way the whole workforce
accesses digital learning.
MOD Chief Information Officer, Charles Forte said on this
agreement:
The Digital Skills for Defence Programme is enabling us to build,
support and drive digital capabilities within the MOD. The
programme will future proof the role we have in continuing to
provide world class defence against our adversaries whether
that’s in the battlespace or the back office. We are driving
our culture of digital innovation by teaming up with partners
like Microsoft to provide our whole force with development and
training opportunities.
Claire Barclay, Microsoft UK CEO said:
Almost every organisation I speak to is prioritising digital
skills. When businesses invest in people, we all benefit; skills
open doors for everyone. It’s an exciting time for the Ministry
of Defence and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.
