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Placing Digital Rights at the heart of Glasgow’s Digital Strategy

Cllr Paul Leinster

Chair, Digital Glasgow

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Introducing Glasgow

  • Scotland's largest city with 635,000 residents
  • Known for its welcoming and diverse nature, the city has a young population & 3 universities, Royal Conservatoire and Glasgow School of Art are popular with international students
  • Celebrating our 850th birthday in 2025
  • Host of major events like the Commonwealth Games, European Championships, UCI Cycling World Championships and COP26
  • Flourished in the industrial revolution, renowned for shipbuilding, manufacturing and trade but suffered with deindustrialisation
  • The city's recent history is marked by regeneration and renewal, making it a leading city for sport, culture, and innovation

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Key Challenges and Priorities

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The Digital Glasgow Strategy 2024-2030

The Digital Glasgow Strategy 2024-2030 sets out an integrated and joined-up plan for putting in place stronger foundations for equipping Glasgow to benefit from the ever-increasing opportunities that digitisation can provide for our society, the city’s economy, and for public services, whilst at the same time addressing the challenges that digitisation brings.

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Core Values

“Establish the core values of the city and affirm them at the political level.”

The United Nations Habitat

  • Be Accessible and Inclusive
  • Protect and Secure
  • Be Open and Transparent
  • Involve and Empower
  • Collaborative and in Partnership

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Missions and Goals

Mission 1: A Fair and Empowered Digital Society

Mission 2: An Inclusive Digital Economy

Mission 3 Sustainable and Innovative Digital Public Services

  1. Improve Digital Inclusion and Equality

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2) Build Confidence and Trust in Digital Services

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3) Increase Involvement and Participation

  1. Improve the Availability, Capacity, and Quality of Digital Connectivity

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2) Develop the pipeline of digital skills, providing opportunities for all

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3) Improve opportunities for Glasgow’s tech ecosystem

  1. Improve the efficiency, resilience, and agility of our operations

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2) Improve the customer experience of our services

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3) Redesign services to improve outcomes for our citizens and communities

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Current Priorities - Accessible and Inclusive

  • Better Signposting of Digital Inclusion support in the city.
  • Assisted Digital: Provision of support for using digital public services in Libraries
  • Redesign of Council website
  • Glasgow Code Learning: Pathway from Digital Inclusion learning to Professional Digital Skills
  • Connected Learning: 70,000 iPads for Primary and Secondary School Children
  • Smart STEM: Inspiration and Learning for Primary School Pupils

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Current Priorities - Open and Transparent

  • Open Data Portal
  • Publicly available Digital Twin
  • AI Register

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Current Priorities - Involve and Empower

  • Community Engagement Platform (Consul)
  • Public Consultation on the Digital Strategy
  • Involvement in User Research and Testing
  • Creation of a “Digital Rights Advocacy Group”
  • AI Policy Framework

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Case Studies: Smart STEMS

  • Partnership between SmartSTEMs, Glasgow City Council & Glasgow Life
  • Workshops in 25 primary schools, now in libraries & secondaries
  • Focus: Robotics, Coding, Data Science — skills for the future
  • Designed to close digital divide & gender gap in STEM
  • Co-created with pupils & teachers — inclusive by design
  • Professional role models connect learning to real careers
  • Enabled by Glasgow’s commitment to equitable digital access

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https://youtu.be/d_SjzzRb7ik

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Case Studies: Glasgow Code Learning

  • Inclusive digital skills training: free, flexible courses from basic digital literacy to advanced topics like AI, data science, software development, and cyber security.
  • Targeted support: designed for individuals facing barriers to traditional education and employment, with one-to-one mentoring and employability assistance.
  • Accredited qualifications: industry-recognized SQA certifications at SCQF levels 4–8.
  • Workforce integration: pilot paid internships in collaboration with jobs and business glasgow and local employers to bridge the gap between training and employment.
  • Success story: max transitioned from hospitality to a tech career through GCL's cyber security course and internship at STAR Refrigeration.

https://youtu.be/o_4hPThApnI

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Questions

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