</The IoC is reaching new audiences with the award-winning CTRL Your Future campaign>
The Institute of Coding’s (IoC) diversity and inclusion campaign wins award for inspiring content that has reached a large and diverse group of learners.
The IoC, which is led by the University of Bath, and creative agency Karmarama were recognised at the PR Week Awards, which celebrate the best creative campaigns in the UK. Winning the award for Best Use of Content, one judge commented that CTRL Your Future was a “smashing use of both audience insight and content. Very smart, engaging and energising.”
The CTRL Your Future campaign launched on Ada Lovelace Day in October 2019. The campaign was based on research from our partners and a nationwide poll that revealed young people’s deeply held perceptions that the digital sector and workforce lacked diversity. For example, 71% of respondents said they believe that the tech industry is made up of people solely identifying as heterosexual, 83% believe it’s led by men, and 70% said it is run entirely by people of white, British ethnicity. Through our research and polling, it was clear that factors were actively discouraging young people from pursuing digital skills education and careers.
In order to address this, we teamed up with some of the digital industry’s most exciting trailblazers to showcase inspiring examples of people shifting the dial on diversity in this field. Our trailblazers are a group of creators and change-makers who are making digital inclusive for all and restarting the system along the way. By showcasing their exciting and creative work and their personal journeys into tech, the campaign aimed to identify and address barriers people may face, showcase accessible role models learning and working in the sector and demonstrate the varied career options that exist in the tech sector. You can read blog posts and stories from our inspirational role models on our website.
As part of this campaign, we’ve rolled out events, panel talks, workshops and short films – showing the real, accessible opportunities in digital and calling for more people from all backgrounds to get involved via higher education. We’ve reached millions of people and are pleased to see increasing diversity on our online digital skills courses.
If you are inspired to CTRL Your Future and want to take the first step, consider starting a digital skills course with the IoC.