Applying lessons from blueprinting award-winning Cities of Learning UK

Cities of Learning UK is a digitally-enabled place-based approach to empowering access to city-wide learning and enrichment opportunities. Ardcairn founder, Grainne Hamilton, led work while contracted by DigitalMe / City & Guilds on the skills pathways concept, as part of a multi-agency team that partnered with the RSA and the cities of Manchester, Brighton and Plymouth. The team led design sessions with stakeholders from across the cities to: articulate what a City of Learning could be; establish local priorities; define skill needs & a universal skills spine; map learning provision and opportunities across each city; create the blueprints based on the concept of skills credential pathways; and develop a digital platform prototype.

Grainne drew on lessons from her experience conceptualising and blueprinting skills credential pathways with Mozilla to shape the pathways strategy for Cities of Learning UK, conceiving the use of interest-based and destination-based pathways for the AI-driven platform prototype. 

The experience informs Grainne’s approach to awareness-raising and how to ensure engagement with skills discovery and validation by harder to reach groups. The approach has informed Digital Badging Commission discussions regarding transforming skills and qualifications in the UK and has also formed the basis for the RSA Badge Standard.