Talks have taken place about making Stockton a centre of digital skills for the North East.

Digital transformation company Atos, in partnership with industry group techUK, is working with Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham, the Tees Valley Combined Authority, the NHS, education providers and local businesses to discuss the move.

The round-table event was part of a project launched by Atos called Innovating Up aimed at bringing business and government together to deliver on the Levelling Up agenda across the country by developing better digital skills and jobs.

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Held at Stockton Arts Centre, the team discussed how the town can develop local digital skills to bring high quality jobs into the area. Using data from techUK’s Local Digital Capital Index, which suggests Tees Valley and Durham was 40th out of the 41 UK regions for its digital skills despite local R&D investment, the event forms part of an ongoing campaign to encourage politicians to focus on digital jobs that will improve pay, employment and productivity.

The event highlighted challenges to creating a digitally led economy in Stockton, with digital skills and jobs having the potential to revitalise the local economy.

The discussion concluded that Stockton needs to campaign for more support from central government and business to develop its own digital community of local employers, financial institutions, local, regional and national government, and education providers to help design and develop place-based solutions to the digital skills gap Stockton and the rest of the country faces.

The group agreed to work together to secure funding for skills.

Kulveer Ranger, Senior Vice President at Atos & techUK Board Member, said: “With over 200 colleagues based in Stockton and more than 500 across the North East, we see the enormous potential for bringing digital jobs and skills to the town and region.

“New ways of working following the pandemic, combined with the potential benefits of technology, have given this country a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change how our economy works.

“It is only by listening and working with local government and employers like us in communities across the UK that we will identify locally based solutions to local problems. We need these discussions happening across the country if we are to deliver the skilled jobs of the future, right across the UK.”

Alex Cunningham said: “All of us have a role to play in not just promoting places like Stockton as a potential home for digital and tech jobs, but in ensuring the skills are here so that local people benefit from these types of jobs, too.

“Our area has amassed a great deal of industrial knowledge over the years, and it’s clear to me we have a basis that businesses and organisations like Stockton Borough Council and Tees Valley Combined Authority can use as a starting point. We just need to make sure these ambitions are matched by national government, not just in terms of funding but also in a comprehensive industrial strategy.”

Matt Robinson, Head of Regions and Nations, techUK, said: “Our Local Digital Capital Index demonstrates the strength of the tech sector across the UK. For the UK, and importantly for areas like the North of East of England, to fully unleash ambition and potential we need to ensure the sector has a digitally skilled workforce.”

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Tees Valley Mayor, Ben Houchen said: “This is yet another move to put Teesside, Darlington, and Hartlepool on the map as a digital centre for the UK.

“Creating good quality, well paid local jobs is what we’re all about and there is some really exciting stuff happening in the tech sector right across this area.

“These are the jobs of the future and it’s just the start of what we want to achieve.”