Data and AI for Inclusive Growth – Building Skills, Bridging the Digital Divide
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The panel on Data and AI for Inclusive Growth: Building Skills, Bridging the Digital Divide will focus on how digital and data skills will form the foundation of inclusive growth. These skills will enable residents to access opportunities, prepare young people for the jobs of the future, and ensure that no one is left behind in the AI economy.
The discussion will show how Newham will lead this transformation through initiatives such as the Newham Data Programme, partnerships with schools, universities, and employers, and youth-led projects like Data Ambassadors. Under the leadership of Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz, Newham will demonstrate how investment in skills will turn data into opportunity and innovation into fairness.
This panel will talk about how it directly supports Newham’s Growth Plan 2025–2030, which identifies digital and data as one of three key “opportunity sectors” for driving innovation, jobs, and investment. It will talk about the borough’s ambition to:
- Build a future-facing workforce with digital and data skills, ensuring young people and residents can access jobs in the emerging economy.
- Expand the Newham Data Programme, which will build on its success of training over 2,000 people in digital and data skills.
- Leverage investments in data centres and infrastructure (e.g., Bidder Street) to create training, apprenticeships, and employment pathways in data and AI.
- Establish Newham as a centre for AI and public sector innovation through partnerships such as the Centre for AI in the Public Sector in collaboration with the University of East London.
- Ensure digital inclusion, so all residents, regardless of background, will benefit from the shift to data-driven services.
