Britain’s Youth Join Forces with Digital and Tech Industry to Tackle Issues Around Food Poverty

By Larry Solomon, Chief People Officer, EPAM

BIMA Digital Day 2020 offers young people the chance to make a positive contribution to a national crisis while sharpening digital career skills.

London, UK − November 3, 2020 – BIMA, the UK’s digital & tech trade body, today announced the launch of BIMA Digital Day 2020, an initiative that brings digital careers to life for 11-16-year olds. Transforming from a single day into a month-long program of virtual activities during the month of November, over 10,000 young people in classrooms and home schools around the country will use digital and tech skills to tackle issues of food poverty—creating ideas and solutions to raise public awareness and help food aid organizations provide assistance to the right people.

With the support of teachers and top experts across the tech and digital sector, student teams—from London to Aberdeen and Norwich to Bristol—will compete in a sponsored, nationwide challenge for the chance to win £500 cash for their school and other prizes by coming up with innovative ideas to aid emergency food support organizations and raise awareness of the challenges faced by those experiencing food poverty.

“With levels of household food insecurity in the UK among the highest in Europe, too many young people will have a direct experience of the impact of this crisis in their lives,” said Natalie Gross, BIMA Co-President and VP, Brand Marketing, EMEA at EPAM. “BIMA Digital Day gives Britain’s young people an opportunity to share their solutions while learning valuable skills for the future.”

Despite the impact of Coronavirus restrictions on the economy, BIMA recently found that 44% of member agencies are still recruiting and 95% reported that a lack of skills was holding back their growth (source: BIMA), indicating that the digital sector remains a positive career option for young people and Digital Day is as important as ever.

“We are delighted to be part of one of the UK’s longest running digital outreach programmes,” said Shamilka Samarasinha, Global Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at EPAM. “The ongoing work we do to open up new digital skills for today’s youth is something we’re proud of and supporting BIMA Digital Day is another extension of how we support young people coming together to connect and share their ideas and creations that will make a difference in the world.”

BIMA Digital Day 2020 is supported by industry partners EPAM Systems, ITV, ITV Content Delivery, Signpost and Liberty Global.

The original article can be found here.