Collaborative Digital Training

Is your charity developing digital services in response to COVID-19?

Applications for this programme are now closed.

We’re looking for three charity workers to join our free programme to help you learn the skills you need.

• If your charity has been affected by COVID-19, then a new free programme from CAST and Founders and Coders is available to build the skills and services you need.
• The programme will consist of three half-day online workshops with our digital experts, in which you’ll learn every aspect of how to manage a big digital project.
• You’ll work with two other charities facing a similar problem to yourselves to identify and build a shared solution. You’ll then develop a prototype which you can test with your users.
• Applications are open to individuals from established UK charitable organisations with between £10k-£100m annual income.  Applications will involve submitting a statement of interest and shortlisted candidates will have a short call with programme coordinators to discuss capacity and commitments over a six week time period.

FAQs

What will I get from the programme?

• You will be trained in Digital Product Management alongside two other charities who are facing a similar challenge. You’ll gain the skills to help you in leading digital projects for your organisation in the future and gain experience of working collaboratively with other charities.
• You’ll learn practical skills like user research, defining solutions, and working with digital partners and developers. By the end of the programme you’ll understand the stages of digital development, how to test your assumptions and be introduced to agile methodologies.
• By the end of the six week programme you’ll walk away with a clickable prototype which solves a problem for your users.

What are the timings of the programme?

Monday 9th March – Applications open

Monday 20th April – Applications close

Friday 24th April – Notify 3 successful charities, and unsuccessful charities

Monday 4th May – Six week programme begins

Friday 12th June – End of programme

Who is the training for?

We are focusing on this programme on responses and service affected by COVID-19.

The training is for any charity worker (not necessarily in a specific ‘digital’ team) who is starting out with digital and is new to user-led, test-driven design. The person doesn’t need to have previous experience in Product Management, but should be open to learning the skills to help their organisation make use of technology to deliver their services. It’s important that this person understands the challenges facing their organisation.

Applications are open to individuals from established charitable organisations with between £10k-£100m annual income.

Ideally we’re looking for decision-makers, who will be able to put the methods learnt directly into practice and are in a position to further develop ideas, e.g. through allocating internal resource or grant-funding applications. You should also have a good understanding of your charity’s existing services and the challenges in providing them.

How will we work together?

Each charity lead will bring an idea of a problem they’d like to solve and will work together on designing solutions to a common problem.

How will we work online?

The session will be hosted on Zoom and we will use Miro and Figma during some of the workshop activities.

What will it cost me?

There is no financial cost to this training. The cost is your time commitment and energy to engage with two other charity leads as well as developers and coordinators over the six weeks.

How much time do I have to commit?

You’ll need to commit between 20-30 hours over six weeks.

I’m not sure if this is for me. Is there someone I can talk to before I apply?

If you’d like to know more, email gilly@wearecast.org.uk or gregor@foundersandcoders.com.

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