Digital Skills Specialists Edinburgh Award 2025/26
On Tuesday 21st April 2026 our Digital Skills Specialists Edinburgh Award students celebrated and toasted their success.
Over the past 6 months they have thrown themselves into the depths of the digital unknown with hope that they’ll come out the other end with a working project that not only gives back to the community but enhances their digital skillset. They certainly made an impact!
The Digital Skills Specialists Edinburgh Award is a series of events and activities designed to strengthen students’ digital skills and help them stand out to employers.
The Award provides evidence of students’ ongoing commitment to developing digital skills and using these to achieve a positive impact. The Award encourages students to view their skills development as a three-step process:
- Identify the digital skills they want to develop
- Develop the skills through self-directed learning and workshops
- Put their new digital skills to practical use through a project activity
Working towards the Award will help students to:
- Increase awareness of their strengths
- Make the most of their strengths, identify areas for development, and work on their individual action plan to develop these skills
- Confidently demonstrate what they have to offer to others
- Achieve an impact in their areas of focus
Reflection from the outset was a second thought for most but without this key component they wouldn’t have got over the line. 2000 words across three reflection submissions can be a big ask at the best of times however with guidance from our talented bank of staff mentors, they soon found their way.
A variety of projects were developed ranging from a desktop voice assistant to a symptoms app and an accessible video on Homer’s Iliad to name but a few.
The Jisc Discovery Tool was a key component of the students’ development where they completed their reports in conjunction with their reflective writing pieces. These reports enabled the students to measure their development across their chosen skills and it was very pleasing to see so much progression in such a short space of time.
It’s always a proud moment guiding students through the Edinburgh Award and there’s no better setting to cross the finishing line than the Playfair Library.
Well done to the final 7!
