Employer Digital Skills Profile Series – Week 1 – Arad Goch

Our first Employer Profile is with Arad Goch Theatre Company based in Aberystwyth. One of the essential digital skills that Arad Goch values most is the use of Microsoft software. You can view curated collections on LinkedIn Learning for Microsoft Software below: 

Text Version

Company: Arad Goch Theatre Company

Company Size: 8 permanent staff but up to 20 with temporary contracts

Founded: 1989

Where is the company based: Aberystwyth

Examples of typical graduate roles:

  • Technicians
  • Actors
  • Schools liaison Officer
  • Admin Assistant
  • Marketing Officer

Essential Digital Skills We Value:
Digital Proficiency – Use of Microsoft software, SAGE payroll software for finance, software programmes for running production lighting, sound etc.
Digital Creativity – Adobe photoshop for leaflets and poster, website design and updates, video editing software
Digital Communication – Emails and video calls

How important is social media in the business?:
“It comes into a lot of our roles. Everything is by email now but the marketing officers would need to promote our events in the medium of Welsh across all of our social media. Most of our marketing is done through social media now.”

What is your biggest advise to someone tying to get into your industry?:
“Experience! I know it is a bit of a catch-22 because you can not get a job without getting the experience but just getting that experience, even volunteering, really gets your foot in the door, then the world is your oyster!”

Do you think that people overlook the importance of digital skills in creative industries?:
“Yes, it’s a very important part of our industry. Showing what goes on behind the scene is a good way of getting the message out there and so for example, we make videos of the productions to get people interested. So skills in say digital marketing are critical for us.”

What are you not seeing enough of in terms of these digital skills?:
“Technicians are very few and far between so finding people for those roles is quite tricky. There doesn’t seem to be many people around wth lots of marketing experience either.”

Arad Goch Website

Produced by the Student Digital Champions

DigiTip 39: Practice makes Perfect: Rehearse Timings in PowerPoint 🥇

If you need to deliver a presentation within a strict time limit, you may want to practice to get your timings perfect. With DigiTip 39, you can learn how to practice your presentation and receive the timings you used per slide. View the short clip below to learn how to rehearse: 

Please note that you will need to turn off slide timings before you present in order to change the slides manually, you can learn how to do this here: Rehearse and time the delivery of a presentation – Microsoft Support 

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week!  

Introducing our new ‘Employer Digital Skills Profile Series’!

This week our seven-week series of Employer Digital Skills Profiles will begin. Similar to the Graduate Profile Series that we released last year, the Employer Profile series is a set of profiles from a variety of employers to help see what digital skills are essential and valued across varying professions. A new profile will be released every Thursday at 11:30 starting this week with the theatre company Arad Goch! Make sure to tune in to read the new profiles and you can go back and read our Graduate Digital Skills Profiles Series here

DigiTip 37: Switch it up with Synonyms in Word 🔀

Have you ever gotten stuck trying to think of a different word to take your sentence to the next level? There’s no need to struggle anymore! With DigiTip 37, learn how to use the synonyms function in Word. View step by step instructions below or watch the short video to learn more! 

Simply: 

  • Right click on the chosen word  
  • Hover over ‘synonyms’  
  • Select a new word! 
  • Still not seeing an appropriate word? Select thesaurus and view more! 

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week!  

DigiTip 35: Secure your screen with Windows + Lock!  🔒

Do you need to lock your screen faster than going through the Start menu? With DigiTip 35 you have your solution!  

Did you know that you quickly lock your screen by selecting the Window’s key and pressing ‘L’.  

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week!

💻Reminder: ‘IS Digital Essentials for Teaching’ Blackboard site 

In September 2023, we launched the new ‘IS Digital Essentials for teaching’ Blackboard site. The site is a culmination of resources from Information Services that any new academic staff member might need. This includes a checklist for everything you need to complete before you begin teaching as well as information and access to resources you could currently need, or you may want to digitally enhance your teaching.  

This is a reminder to all academic staff that the Blackboard site is still available to support any new or existing staff. View the Blackboard site to learn more.  

If you have any questions or if you’re having trouble accessing the course. Please contact us at: digi@aber.ac.uk 

The Hit List: Top 5 DigiTips from 2023/24 ⏫🎉

Blogpost by Shân Saunders (Digital Capabilities and Skills Development Coordinator)

In September 2023, the Digital Skills Team began DigiTips – a weekly blogpost to highlight a useful tip that you can use to make your daily digital life easier. Below are the top 5 DigiTips from 2023/24.  

  1. DigiTip 5: Split your screen and multitask! ↔💻

Are you working on one screen and struggling? Are you tired of swapping between two windows? Did you know that you can split your screen to view two things at once making it much easier to view two windows at the same time. This means that you can work on documents, tabs and much more side-by-side. 

  1. DigiTip 18: Express yourself with Emojis with the hidden keyboard shortcut 🥳🤩💖

Most of us will be more familiar with using emojis on our mobile phones 📱, but there will be times when we’ll want to include emojis when using our laptops or computers💻. Instead of googling for the emoji you need, why not access it directly from your keyboard!? 

  1. DigiTip 8: Limit your scrolling time on Instagram. 📴

Are you struggling to concentrate on your work? Are you procrastinating on social media? Do you need to limit your scrolling time? Did you know you can now limit your Instagram scrolling time through the Instagram settings.  

  1. DigiTip 21: Copy and paste content in Word without messing up your formatting. 📃

Have you ever copied and pasted content from a webpage or another document into a new Word document and found that it completely messes up your formatting? Luckily, there are additional options outside of the basic pasting option (ctrl+v) which can help solve this! 

  1. DigiTip 6: Set your status for a set time in MS Teams to show that you’re busy. 🔕

Sometimes, you may need to set some time aside to concentrate on a particular piece of work, but how can you show other people who are also online that you’re busy? Microsoft Teams allows you to set your status to Do not disturb, meaning that you won’t be interrupted by Teams notifications or calls (unless you choose to receive these from specific people), but it can be too easy to forget to turn this status off once you’re finished.   

Join us in October 2024 for more DigiTips, to follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week starting from October! 

Next in the Series: New updates to our favourite reading apps 📚

Blogpost by Shân Saunders (Digital Capabilities and Skills Development Coordinator)

In February we wrote a blogpost about apps to help with your reading habits. As it’s National Book Lover’s Day, there are new updates to one of the apps mentioned – Fable. Fable is a combination of a reading app and social media where you can see updates from other readers including opinions that they have on your previously read and want to read books.  

Recent updates include having your reading streak and progress update bar on the homepage for easy access. Additionally, Fable is now branching out from books with the option to mark your progress and join clubs for TV shows meaning you can watch episodes and discuss your favourite shows with other fans. Fable is also currently testing a new AI chatbot called Scout where you input prompts for suggestions and recommendations for your next reads based on tropes and genres or if you’re looking for something similar to another read.  

The main new feature is the stats page. Under your user profile, there is now a reader summary, a little AI summary which automatically updates after every read. Within this there is also a graph of the books you have read this year with a reader insight into when you’re due to reach your reading goal. Along with the reading streak widget on the homepage, you can view how much you read in previous months including your longest reading streak. You can also view a graph with your most read genres and underneath this you can see your average rating of books you have read.  

Delve into Development: Learn more about AI through LinkedIn Learning 🧠

Blogpost by Shân Saunders (Digital Capabilities and Skills Development Coordinator)

AI and generative AI have become increasingly more ingrained into our lives whether through personal or professional use. LinkedIn Learning has a variety of information to help you learn more about AI including how to use AI responsibly. See below for the top 10 courses available on AI and generative AI on LinkedIn Learning. Please note that currently LinkedIn Learning does not support courses in Welsh.  

  1. Understanding the Impact of Deepfake videos (48m) 
  2. What is Generative AI? (1h 3m) 
  3. Introduction to Prompt Engineering for Generative AI (44m) 
  4. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (1h 34m) 
  5. Get Ready for Generative AI (5m 26s) 
  6. Digital Marketing Trends (2h 30m) 
  7. Ethics in the Age of Generative AI (39m) 
  8. Generative AI: The Evolution of Thoughtful Online Search (26m) 
  9. Artificial Intelligence Foundations: Thinking Machines (1h 36m) 
  10. Generative AI for Business Leaders (57m) 

LinkedIn Learning is a free resource available to all Aberystwyth University students and staff. If you need help accessing your LinkedIn Learning account, please view our FAQ’s or you can email us at digi@aber.ac.uk.