Following a visit to Buckingham Palace, Mansfield company Dijitul will be pioneering iDEA, a nationwide initiative that supports 14 to 25-year-olds to develop digital business ideas while improving their digital skills.

Dave Hartshorne, one of the two founders of Dijitul, said: “How many times have people sat and watched TV programmes about business and thought they had an idea or that they could do something they had seen?

“Well, now they just might be able to thanks to iDEA (Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award). We are now working alongside the Duke of York and the Nominet Trust, helping them boost iDEA.

“It aims to improve the digital and enterprise skills of one million young people in the next five years.”

Dijitul will be working with iDEA and Digital Me to develop a new digital skills badge that will
focus on giving young people skills in ecommerce management and entrepreneurialism.

In 2015, Dijitul will be running a regional awareness campaign to attract more young people into iDEA. Applicants will be able to sign up for the project and work towards the iDEA annual competition, where three teams will be declared iDEA winners and given a £15,000 prize plus continued mentoring support to help their business startup.

iDEA has had support from the likes of Will I Am, George the Poet, Nick D’Aloisio, Lily Cole and Michael ActonSmith. Corporate partners include Barclays, KPMG, Microsoft, Salesforce, 02, Mozilla as well as Dijitul.

Dave Hartshorne said: “iDEA is a fantastic opportunity for young people and I am extremely honoured to be involved with the project.

“The East Midlands has been identified as one of the key areas for digital growth and with my mission to put Mansfield on the map for its digital capabilities, iDEA could not have landed at a more suitable time.”

Pictured are Olly and Dave Hartshorne of Dijitul.