CareerTech Challenge is an ambitious innovation programme led by Nesta and Nesta Challenges in partnership with the Department for Education.

The programme focuses on stimulating new solutions for precarious workers, such as workers in low-paid, insecure work that's susceptible to change, to upskill and retrain online. It also focuses on improving access to accurate data-driven information, advice and guidance to help these people find work. In this project update, we hear from Sopra Steria, European leader in consulting, technology transformation and software development and ELATT, a London based adult learning provider, who have partnered to develop DigiLearn, an online workplace skills course.

DigiLearn will provide learners with the necessary soft and hard skills to succeed in the future world of work. Combining adaptive learning pathways, gamification and nudging will transform the course content into an innovative digital course, testing out the best ways to improve learner motivation.

ELATT and Sopra Steria have developed their digital learning content, adapting ELATT’s existing materials for the online platform. Together they have also conducted thorough academic and user research with teachers and students from ELATT, giving insight into the National Retraining Scheme cohort’s views and experiences of adult and online learning. They've gained an in-depth understanding into the nuances of adult education, and how this can be applied to online learning.

The technical development of DigiLearn is well underway with the content being integrated into the digital platform and additional features being created.

As an adult learning provider, ELATT has been adapting its business as usual provision to suit remote learning. Sopra Steria and ELATT have successfully rearranged project timelines and user testing cycles to accommodate this.

The project team also had to adapt their user research interviews so that they could be conducted remotely while everyone was working from home. However, the team found that this produced a richer picture of the context and potential barriers to learning that learners might face.

Over the next six months, Sopra Steria and ELATT will be focusing on finishing product development and then conducting a pilot to test the effectiveness of the content and various additional features on learner motivation.

For more information, please email [email protected].