Ada, the National College for Digital Skills, recognised with The King’s Award for Enterprise

Ada, the National College for Digital Skills, has been honoured with the first ever King’s Award for Enterprise for Promoting Opportunity (through social mobility). Ada, which has a mission to educate and empower the next generation of diverse digital talent, is one of148organisations nationally to be recognised with the prestigious award.

The achievement follows a successful partnership with Bank of America to deliver outreach and additional services which recruit and support young people from underrepresented groups into Ada’s Sixth Form and Digital Degree Apprenticeship education programmes and onto aspirational careers in Tech.

Around 800,000 tech jobs go unfilled every year with employers unable to recruit the digitally trained talent they need. Ada seeks to fill this skills gap by ensuring young people are equipped with the skills industry actually needs, empowering those who are currently underrepresented in UK tech, including young women and people from low income and ethnic minority backgrounds.

Alongside Bank of America, Ada’s innovative curriculum is designed in collaboration with industry partnersincludingSalesforce, WorkdayandKing. Partners volunteer in the classroom, deliver industry led projectsandintensive one-to-one coaching to build students’ confidence and help them access opportunities that might otherwise not be available to them.

Ada’s high performing Sixth Form was the top centre for the Computing BTEC nationally in 2020 and 43% of Ada’s October 2022 apprentice​ graduates​ achieved 1st class degrees, ​with​ a 100% pass rate.

Mark Smith, CEO, Ada, the National College for Digital Skills:

“We are thrilled to be recognised by the King’s Award for Enterprise. Promoting opportunity, and supporting diverse young people into a meaningful career in tech, particularly those who may traditionally feel the industry is closed to them, is at the heart of everything we do at Ada. We achieve outstanding results and transformational outcomes by providing a range of additional services to level the playing field, address pastoral issues, support wellbeing and give learners multiple opportunities to build social capital and confidence. We could not do it without the support of partners like Bank of America. We are honoured to have this commitment and everyone’s effort recognised by the King’s Award for Enterprise.”

Andrea Sullivan, International Head of Social and Environment at Bank of America said:

“Bank of America congratulates Ada, the National College for Digital Skills, for receiving The King’s Award for Enterprise for Promoting Opportunity. Through our long-standing collaboration, we have witnessed first-hand Ada’s exponential growth and progress in their mission to empower the next generation of diverse talent. We look forward to our continued partnership, helping to bridge the gap to ensure a thriving and inclusive technology sector.”