Rachel Gowers

DIGITAL is like air, it’s all around us and, according to teenagers, we can’t live without it. But what does the impact of digital have on graduates of tomorrow?

As we enter the fourth industrial revolution – where the convergence of digital, biological and physical innovation is all around us – how can universities like Staffordshire make sure they deliver the right skills for tomorrow’s workforce?

According to global employment websites, jobs of the future will focus on skills that cannot be automated. Skills that can’t be replicated by robots or artificial intelligence.

These skills are identified as the four Cs – complex problem solving, creativity, co-ordinating with others and cognitive flexibility.

Yet how do we prepare young people with these soft skills from classrooms?

This month, Staffordshire University launches Digital Institute London, which is a new base for degree courses in e-sports, computer games design and cyber security, which have been ‘made in Staffordshire’ and continue to be delivered here.

The new London campus is part of Here East on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which bills itself as ‘London’s home for making,’ and it’s clear to see how learning of the future will be different.

There are no classrooms, lecture theatres, not even a library. It’s open plan, it has soft furnishings, high benches, low coffee tables, and quiet pods sculpted out of metal caging.

In this space, students will learn to become inventors. They will create their own style of learning through projects, take part in hackathons across different disciplines and campuses – exactly like the real world where you learn to work with marketing, engineering and technical to get the job done.

Crucially, this new facility and approach to learning and teaching will benefit our students in Staffordshire and London, enabling the sharing of opportunities, knowledge and skills, and supporting students and staff to operate remotely and in person between sites – at the same time bringing them into contact with a wealth of employers in the computer games and digital industries.

So, as Digital Institute London prepares to open its doors to students for the first time, it presents our university community with the opportunity to try something new.