Ada. National College for Digital Skills

Who we are

Our mission is to work with industry to design and deliver an education that supports all our students, especially young women and those from low-income households into highly skilled digital careers and lead flourishing lives.

Ada, the National College for Digital Skills was announced by the Prime Minister in December 2014. We opened our doors to students for the first time in September 2016 in Tottenham Hale. We are England’s first new Further Education College since 1993. Tech City stated in 2017 that there were over 130,000 unfilled Tech and IT jobs in the UK. There is currently no education provider linking talented young people directly to these lucrative careers. The College seeks to be this bridge and focus on achieving three aims:
1. To be a centre of excellence for the teaching and learning of advanced digital skills
2. To offer students a viable, high-quality alternative to university
3. To be a beacon of best practice for employment-focused provision

LOCATION and PROVISION:
The College opened its ‘Hub’ campus in Tottenham Hale in September 2016. As of Sept. 2018, we
have 130 16-19 students enrolled. Our Higher Level Apprenticeships in Digital Innovation and Data
Analytics and Visualisation, with a degree programme, validated by the Open University at their core,
have 130 apprentices enrolled from a range of organisations such as Google, Expedia, the FT,
Siemens, Deloitte and the National Archives. At present 21% of our students are young women and
50% are from low-income households.

Our curriculum is academically stretching but practically rigorous. All our students and apprentices
focus on developing the Technical, Creative and Entrepreneurial skills needed to be successful entry-
level digital professionals.

GOALS:
Within 5 years the London campuses will have educated 5,000 students and apprentices through
its taught provision and online learning platform. There will be an on-going cohort of 1,500 per
annum in London and plans in place for a campus outside London.
The College is focused on using digital skills as a tool for social mobility. Within 5 years, 50% of
our students will be young women (to address the gender imbalance in the sector) and 50% will
come from low income households.