Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award

The Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award (iDEA) is an innovative digital badge concept, helping to plug the UK’s digital skills gap, with content designed to inspire people to become digital citizens, workers, makers, entrepreneurs and gamers. The different learning categories cover diverse topics including cyber security, cloud computing and e-safety; as well as animation, growth hacking, customer relationship management and web development.

iDEA uses a blended learning approach that aspires to be a digital and enterprise equivalent of The Duke of Edinburgh Award. Participants take on a series of challenges to earn points which aggregate towards their Bronze, Silver or Gold Inspiring Digital Enterprise Awards. The iDEA badges provide flexible learning, available to anyone free of charge, when and where they want to learn. They can be done by independent learners, or in classrooms and workshops.

Ufi supported the development of the Bronze and Silver levels. iDEA reached a quarter of a million users in the two years since launching the Bronze Award, with more than 1.3 million badges completed.  The team is now developing the Gold Award level and aims to engage additional Partners from the worlds of business, industry and enterprise as an important route to new learners accessing and make sure that Gold Award vocational badges are tied to skills needs.

By working in partnership with organisations such as schools, charities, local authorities, and employers, iDEA aims to play a key role in helping to co-create coherence in the digital and enterprise skills learning landscape. iDEA learners are incentivised to become digital all-rounders, with the opportunity to take their learning deeper into specific areas of interest by combining a series of badges.