CodeMill is a not-for-profit initiative in Leeds City Region that aims to address the digital skills shortage through monthly meetups, training programs, and digital ambassadors. It focuses on diversity and inclusion to involve more groups in digital skills. Upcoming activities include introductory tech talks in November, a potential project with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust on internet-connected bats, and partnerships with colleges for training. CodeMill is part of a wider family of organizations including PIPELINE Conference and London Continuous Delivery meetup.

1. CodeMill
digital skills
Launch Night introduction
Matthew Skelton
14 Sept 2017, ODI Leeds

3. Takeaways
•Monthly meetups
•Digital Ambassadors
for Leeds City Region
•Diversity & Social
Inclusion for software

4. UK digital skills gap
costs £63bn
http://www.britishchambers.org.uk/press-office/press-releases/bcc-shortage-of-digital-
skills-hampering-business-productivity-and-growth.html
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmsctech/270/270.pdf
75% of employers
report a shortage of
digital skills

5. Why CodeMill?
•Shortage of digital skills
•Move to digital service
economy
•Many groups poorly
represented in digital

7. It’s personal
•Matthew Skelton
•Born in Bradford
•Live in Leeds
•Building software systems
since 1998
@matthewpskelton | matthewskelton.net

8. What

9. What is CodeMill?
•Not-for-profit initiative for
Leeds City Region
•Backed by 4 years of
meetups, conferences,
training
•Part of a wider family

10. What’s happening?
•Meetup – monthly
•Training for digital skills
•Digital Ambassadors for
Leeds City Region
•Conferences & Events
•…?

11. Meetup mission
Showcase people and
organisations doing
great things with software
around the
Leeds City Region

12. What’s the focus?
•Digital skills:
current/future
•Diversity & inclusion
•Engineering Excellence
•Promote the North / LCR

14. Current digital skills
•Web / Mobile / Cloud
•Developers, Testers
•Analysts, Product people
•UX, Designers, Coaches
•Operations, DevOps

16. Future digital skills
•IoT, smart buildings
•Robot farms, digital health
•Industrial automation
•Voice-controlled
•AI, Machine Learning

17. Who

19. Diversity for Engineering
•Better solutions
•Wider range of ideas
•Higher profitability
•It’s the Right Thing To Do

20. Diversity for Engineering
•Women
•BAME
•NEET
•Older people
•People from poorer areas

21. http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/trailblazer-at-82-japan-woman-creates-app-for-elderly-people-to-stay-active/story-dyjETlPm1rUSZrJiB8LSZO.html

22. Partnering for Diversity
•Schools & Colleges
•Housing Associations
•University of the 3rd Age
•Womens’ Institute
•STEM ambassadors

24. Industrial Heritage
•Manufacturing
•Expertise in building stuff
•Engineering Know-How

25. How

26. So far…
•Wuthering Bytes festival
•Applying for grant from
Royal Academy of
Engineering
•Meetup speakers to
January 2018

28. Next…
•Tech Talks for Beginners –
1-day training prep for
conferences and meetups
•London – 09 November
•Leeds – 23 November
•https://ti.to/codemill-digital-skills/

30. Next…
•Internet of Bats (?) :
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust +
Tom Forth + ODI Leeds

31. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/iot-fundamentals-lora-lorawan-paul-sabadin

32. Next…
•LoRaWAN – low-power
connected devices

34. Next…
•Partnership with colleges
and universities in Leeds
for #digitalskills training
(tbc)

36. Next…
•Conference in late 2018
•“Makers + Manufacturers”
•aka Software for IoT
•Leeds

37. With…

38. Sponsors Meetup Events
Training Companies Individuals
Grants Projects
Professional
Bodies
Show me the money!

39. We’re working with

40. Part of the family…
PIPELINE Conference
Since 2014
pipelineconf.info
London Continuous Delivery meetup
Since 2012
londoncd.org.uk
Software Engineering Practice Limited
Not-for-profit (Limited by Guarantee) | Company Number 8867855 | softwarepractice.org,uk

42. Meetups
•Speakers
•(We can help with talks)
•Help to run meetups
•SPONSORSHIP $$$

44. Digital Ambassadors
•Leeds City Region
•10 people in 2018 cohort
•Promoting good digital
engineering in & around
Leeds City Region
•Paid (a bit)

45. What’s happening?
•Meetup – monthly
•Training for digital skills
•Digital Ambassadors for
Leeds City Region
•Conferences & Events
•…?

46. Stay in touch!
http://codemill.tech/
hi@codemill.tech
@CodeMillHQ
020 8798 0885