iDEA and Digital Stockport Partnership

iDEA and Digital Stockport is a partnership between Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and iDEA (Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award) offering a free online digital and enterprise skills badge programme to residents, aimed at reducing digital exclusion and closing the digital skills gap. Stockport established a local 'Digital Stockport' badge in early 2018 that counts toward the iDEA Bronze Award.

The programme aims to help residents — including school leavers and people re-entering the job market — build basic digital skills that are now a prerequisite for most jobs, and to help local employers identify candidates who have invested in digital skills education.

Stockport worked with its Growth Hub to raise employer awareness of the scheme and encouraged local community and voluntary groups and Council staff to adopt it. iDEA offers three award levels — Bronze (beginner), Silver (intermediate) and Gold (advanced) — via short, flexible online badges usable on any device, comparable in concept to the Duke of Edinburgh Award but focused on digital/enterprise skills.

By the end of May 2019, around 1,600 Stockport residents had signed up (about two-thirds via schools/colleges, one-third individually); at least 212 had achieved the Bronze Award and 57 the Silver Award, with more than 10,000 badges completed in total.

The practice record explicitly notes no formal evaluation was conducted ('Evaluation: No'); the reported figures are participation counts rather than assessed outcomes.