Vodafone and Sony Pictures partner to close digital skills gap

Vodafone and Sony Pictures have announced a groundbreaking global collaboration, which sees them uniting to help millions of young people in 20 countries identify their skills and find digital jobs that match them.

They will use December’s hotly anticipated movie release Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to introduce young people to Vodafone’s free Future Jobs Finder, a gamified digital platform to help them understand their skills and future career opportunities. The initiative was developed as part of Vodafone’s global programme, What will you be?, which has committed to support 10 million young people to access digital skills, learning and employment opportunities by 2022.

A global digital campaign to support the Sony Pictures and Vodafone collaboration - leading people to Future Jobs Finder - will draw on the movie’s central theme: that anyone can achieve their full potential with the right skills and support.

Andre Seddoh, Vice President International Marketing Partnerships at Sony Pictures, said: “We are so excited about this visually groundbreaking movie, as for the first time we open up a different Spider-Man universe - known as the Spider-Verse - where more than one can wear the mask. Within this world we introduce Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales, who like many young people preparing to leap into the next stage of their lives, is struggling to find out who he is and what he is meant to be. By teaming up with Vodafone we can engage with audiences using the inspirational power of this game-changing movie while also helping Vodafone to connect young people with digital jobs and free digital skills training.”

Joakim Reiter, Director of External Affairs at Vodafone Group said: “Our ambition is to help 10 million young people to access digital skills, learning and employment opportunities and our partnership with Sony Pictures will help us accelerate our progress towards this goal by bringing our digital platform, Future Jobs Finder, to more young people who are thinking about their future career. Future Jobs Finder has been specifically designed to help young adults make a connection between their skills and digital careers they may never have thought of. Together we can harness the power of technology, and the excitement around the movie, to engage with young people to help them realise their potential and play a role in closing the digital skills gap.”

Seddoh added: “One of the great moments in the movie is when Peter Parker says to Miles “Don’t do it like me, do it like you,” and this is what we want everyone to take away from this movie and use as inspiration to fulfil their own destiny.”

Since launching in March this year, more than 300,000 young people have completed Vodafone’s Future Jobs Finder tool, introducing them to over a million digital job types. The online platform takes people through a series of short tests, developed with psychologists, careers experts and training providers, to identify their skills and interests. By responding to these questions, young people can understand where their potential lies and find live local job opportunities in multiple digital industries which are matched to their skills, as well as access relevant, free digital skills training.