Manchester Digital Skills Festival - Why YOU need to be there! | The Candidate

We're a proud partner of Manchester Digital, a community and platform representing Greater Manchester’s tech and digital sector. This year, their Digital Skills Festival is back and better than ever!

Kate Wilson, their Partnership Manager, gives us the inside scoop about the events taking place and explains exactly why you should attend!

Kate Wilson, Partnership Manager at Manchester Digital

The Digital Skills Festival has become a major event in the digital and tech calendar, what is happening this year?

The Skills Festival is a jam packed week-long programme of events and activities running from the 7th to the 11th February, including; presentations, seminars, workshops, industry insights and professional development, as well as opportunities to network with others and meet/recruit new talent looking to break into the industry. It starts with our Conference Day, which this year will take place at Circle Square, Oxford Road, on 7th February. We have a keynote from Google, a presentation of our findings from our annual Digital Skills Audit and panellist discussions from some of our regional business leaders.

We are thrilled that we are able to deliver many of these events in-person again after a fully virtual event in 2021. It's so important to be able to share this content, learn together and network with our members and wider tech community.

We are excited to be exhibiting at the Talent Day. Who is this aimed at and who should attend?

Anyone who is looking for a new opportunity in the digital & tech sector or considering a career change into the industry should attend! Talent Day is the largest careers fair of its kind in the North West and will give you the opportunity to get yourself in front of 40 of the region's leading employers including The Home Office, Bentley, Auto Trader, Naimuri, Zuhlke and BT. They will be showcasing a wide selection of roles and opportunities. Plus tickets are free! Register here. We are expecting over 1500 + jobseekers including students, graduates, early talent and career switchers.

We are very excited about the Talent Day, can you tell us a bit about the format for the day?

Talent Day opens at 11am and runs until 3pm and will take place at etc.venues Manchester. Jobseekers have the option to book an AM entry ticket or PM entry ticket. There will also be talks from some of our sponsors and the opportunity to receive career/CV advice from our team.

As always the rich MD community will be exhibiting, are there any desks we should definitely not miss out on?

My advice would be to register for the event and then you’ll receive a selection of the jobs that will be live and promoted on the day in advance - that way you can plan your visit, research the businesses you're interested in and head straight to their stand to discuss opportunities. Of course The Candidate can offer great advice across the entire market! I know there will be some exciting roles across software development, digital marketing, engineering and data science. It's amazing that Manchester and its surrounding area is home to so many amazing digital and tech businesses - in fact there is no reason why you can’t have an extraordinary career in this region without ever leaving!

Anything else to add?

There is a great opportunity for employers who are curious about taking Digital apprentices to join a discussion on Tuesday 8th - they can register here. So if you are committed to future proofing our region’s pipeline of talent - please come along!

PLUS don’t miss out on some professional development opportunities. If you’re interested in learning and upskilling - why not join one of our sessions. You can try your hand at performing “User Story Mapping” or get involved with designing using AutoCad. There is also a session on how to find the perfect technical candidates and retain them. Make sure you get signed up - full details of the sessions can be found here.

We’d love you to get involved with our event and learn and develop from the wealth of experience and knowledge our amazing digital and tech community can offer. If you have any questions you can get in touch with me directly [email protected]

See you there, Kate.

Thank you so much Kate! You'll find The Candidate exhibiting at the Talent Day event on the 9th of February! (Follow our Instagram for BTS updates on the day and other fun team content!)

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