Leading tech education charity calls for Scottish tech sector to help safeguard Scotland’s digital future
Digital Xtra, a technology education charity, has seen demand skyrocket for after school coding clubs and wider STEM activities – yet it says unless industry make up a current government shortfall in funding, thousands of young people won’t have the opportunity to learn vital future skills. This is of particular concern considering recent figures which show a further decrease in the number of computing teachers across Scotland.
Digital Xtra’s Kraig Brown: “There has never been a greater collective realisation of the importance of digital skills for Scotland’s young people – but with government funding now unavailable due to budgetary constraints, we’re calling on the Scottish tech sector to invest in skills and work together to future proof local tech talent.”
Linlithgow, 23 April 2024 – Leading Scottish tech charity, Digital Xtra, has called on Scotland’s burgeoning tech sector to support the provision of extracurricular digital skills learning in schools and communities.
Over the past eight years the charity has funded 163 digital skills learning initiatives, to the tune of almost £1m, reaching nearly 55,000 young people across Scotland, from the Borders to the Outer Hebrides. However, funding from the Scottish Government for the next cohort of activities is unavailable and the charity fears the growth of digital skills, which is crucial to building Scotland’s future economy, will experience further setback.
Kraig Brown added: “Every role in our children’s future will require a degree of digital confidence and skill, and one of the biggest growth constraints for Scotland’s tech sector is a narrow talent pipeline. Excitingly, in an industry that struggles with gender balance, over half of the young people we support are girls –making for a potentially more representative future tech industry. However, without funding for these projects, thousands of Scotland’s young people won’t be able to take their first step to a future career in technology
Despite a shortage in computer science teachers, there are passionate educators across the country who run coding, robotics, and games development clubs, funded by Digital Xtra, because they understand how important these skills are to our young people’s future. But we’re facing a situation where we can fund less than half the number of projects we could just a few years ago. With government currently unable to provide us with the funding we received previously, we’re calling on the technology sector to step up to keep the momentum going.”
Some of Scotland’s leading tech names have already committed their support, including travel search site Skyscanner. The Edinburgh born firm has donated over £55,000, the single largest corporate contribution received by Digital Xtra to date. Other corporate partners include Baillie Gifford and Cirrus Logic as well as Accenture, Be Positive, DIGIT, Incremental Group, and FullProxy.
Andrew Phillips, Skyscanner’s Chief Technology Officer, who grew up in Aberdeen, said: “Without lots of digital skills provision at my own school, I taught myself computer programming, which kick started my journey into my role today. Scotland’s tech sector has the potential to be a leader in Europe, but from my own experience I recognise the systematic challenges we face. We have potential for our tech sector to grow even further – but without supporting young people to learn digital skills from an early age, we simply won’t have enough home-grown talent to do so.”
Digital Xtra appointed tech sector luminary Polly Purvis OBE, chair of Converge Challenge and formerly CEO of ScotlandIS, as chair last year.
Polly Purvis said: “The appetite for digital skills provision is huge – indeed, Digital Xtra has eight times the number of funding requests we’re currently able to support this year. The charity’s outcomes have been nothing short of transformational for so many young people and so many communities. At a time when the need for digital skills is only going to increase, and the Scottish tech sector and wider economy will be the main beneficiaries of a digitally skilled workforce, along with the young people themselves, we need even more investment from the private sector companies to generate the incredible output from organisations like Digital Xtra. Our ask of industry is to work together through the charity and provide additional funding this year so we can make the step change needed to fund many more of these brilliant projects.”
Last year’s grants from Digital Xtra included the ‘NextGen Coding Club’ by the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers in Aberdeen, ‘Roving Robots’ by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar in the Western Isles, and an all-girls’ ‘DigiSTEM Club’ in East Renfrewshire.
Support from Chroma Ventures enables Digital Xtra Fund to increase the 2021/22 grant awards to £100,000.
Kraig Brown, Partnerships & Development Manager at Digital Xtra Fund, said: “Like many charities, 2020 was full of uncertainties for the Fund but Chroma Ventures’ support has enabled us to continue supporting educators and young people at the same level as previous years. At a time when many in the third sector are struggling, this is important as it builds confidence amongst our grant recipients, stakeholders and other industry partners that Digital Xtra Fund will consistently support young talent in Scotland’s tech sector. We’re delighted we’ll be able to continue our work and help inspire more young people in Scotland to pursue a career in tech. With ambitious plans, we also hope Chroma Ventures’ involvement will raise awareness and encourage further interest and support in our grants programme.”
CGI and Digital Xtra Fund have a common will to 
“There is currently a huge IT skills gap in Scotland, and the only long-term solution is to encourage more youngsters to become interested in computer science and STEM subjects in school so they will consider a career in technology when they leave,” explains Robbie Robinson, global co-lead of 
Kraig Brown, Partnerships and Development Manager at Digital Xtra Fund, comments: “J.P. Morgan’s support is vital in enabling us to make a real impact on the lives of young people around Scotland. Our partners not only provide financial support but their staff can also volunteer to speak with young people about careers in tech, putting a personal face to the variety of roles these skills can lead to.
As such, 
Microsoft also understands that supporting extracurricular activities is another key route to engaging and inspiring young people. Introducing young people to digital technologies through activities outwith school enables participants to understand skills such as computational thinking, coding, and data science before they are required to choose their courses in S2 (around age 12 or 13), something which can be intimidating for students unsure what is computer science. In addition, some computing courses have been reduced or even dropped in Scotland with over half the Local Authorities lacking enough teachers to sufficiently teach computing science in secondary schools, making extracurricular activities the best option for many of these young people to learn about digital technologies.*
Steven Grier, Country Manager for Scotland at Microsoft, said: “As businesses in Scotland and beyond embrace the huge opportunities driven by AI and Machine Learning, its hugely important that we, as a country, continue to build a skills pipeline of talented, innovative, creative young people to help us stay at the forefront of this technology driven revolution. Digital Xtra Fund helps inspire young people to get involved with digital technology, to imagine the possibilities and ultimately to pursue a career in digital, helping us close our skills gaps and empowering Scotland to achieve more!”
Launched in 2016 by the Digital Scotland Business Excellence Partnership, a collaboration of public and private sector organisations, Digital Xtra Fund became an independent charity in March 2017. The Fund aims to ensure that young people have the opportunity to develop the skills required to thrive in the digital age regardless of their gender, background, or where they live.
“The full fibre networks we are building across Scotland and the rest of the UK will be vital in helping to unlock the digital potential our young people have, and ensure they are not held back by our current infrastructure. As digital connectivity becomes more and more essential, we have to ensure our young people are capable of making the most of its potential. We look forward to working with Digital Xtra Fund and to identifying projects to support across Scotland.”
Micro:bit Educational Foundation has donated 1,200 micro:bits to extracurricular digital skills initiatives supported by Digital Xtra Fund.
Edinburgh based Zonal was recently voted Family Business of the Year 2018 and for almost 40 years has been designing and delivering technology solutions for the hospitality sector, including its market leading 
Digital Xtra Fund
Digital Xtra Fund became a charity in March 2017 to enable it to work with a wide range of industry partners. Last year, the Fund awarded grant awards for 11 exciting, high-quality initiatives across Scotland such as Stirling High School’s Digital Learning Hub in partnership with CodeBase Stirling. The initiative saw pupils from SHS deliver a variety of Raspberry Pi based workshops to six primary schools in the area creating a sustainable ecosystem of young developers in Stirling.
Digital Xtra Fund was established in 2016 and originally funded through the Digital Scotland Business Excellence Partnership. In March 2017, the Fund became an independent charity to enable it to work with a wider range of industry partners. Last year, grant awards were provided for 11 exciting, high-quality initiatives across Scotland including the highly successful F1 in Schools STEM Challenge which saw