Changing Lives with Sky Up OLD

of registered schools are from deprived areas

47%

Schools reached since 2020

1200

School children reached annually

40,000+

We’re investing £10 million to connect people at risk of digital exclusion to the digital world. We’re helping people access digital services and learn digital skills, with 100 digital hubs by 2025.

Sky Up | Digital hubs

We work with schools to raise aspirations and give children a taste of what a career in the media would be like. This opens their eyes to the range of job opportunities in the media industry, and makes media careers accessible to kids from a range of diverse backgrounds. Through Sky Up Academy, we set kids free in our studios, helping them find their voice and develop digital storytelling skills. We even take our broadcast trucks on tour, bringing the fun to children the length and breadth of the country, from Penzance to John O’Groats. So far, we’ve given 250,000 young people – and counting – digital storytelling skills.

Through the Edit, our digital storytelling challenge, schools get free access to Adobe’s software and Sky’s film and TV, so the creativity never stops flowing.

Up to 1000 young people leaving care will receive a Sky Up Tech grant to help them connect to the digital services they need to live fulfilled, independent lives.

Sky Up | Tech Grants

Sky Up | Digital Hubs

Find your nearest hub

Find out more

We want our team to represent our customers and communities. Our target is for 20% of our colleagues in the UK and Ireland to be from Black, Asian or Ethnic Minority backgrounds with at least a quarter of these to be Black, by 2025. We’re also investing £30 million to create a culture of inclusivity at Sky and fund innovative projects that tackle inequality in society.

Our film, TV and technology is made with accessibility at heart, from voice-search on Sky Glass to subtitling and audio description. It’s all about enabling as many people as possible to tap into the best film and TV and the best of the digital world. Sky Kids, our new kids TV channel, recently launched with every show subtitled and 20% audio-described. It’s crucial for hearing-impaired children. And watching TV with subtitles helps every child to improve their reading skills.

Inclusion at Sky

Accessibility

Sky Up | Academy Studios

Sky Up | The Edit

Sky Up | Tech Grants

Connecting people to the digital world

Building skills and careers

A national digital storytelling challenge

Supporting young people

Sky Up | Academy Studios

Sky Up | The Edit

We encourage our 31,000 people to volunteer in our communities, doing everything from befriending the elderly to mentoring school children.

If you can't get online, it can have a devastating impact on your career, your health and your life chances. That’s why we’re helping to get everyone online, focusing on young people and the elderly, the two groups at greatest risk of digital exclusion.

Access: Getting everyone online

We love what we do. It’s a privilege to cover live sport, to break the news, to create the shows that people can’t wait to watch. Every year, we welcome thousands of school children into our studios, to experience it for themselves. We show them how it feels to create their own piece of TV – to plan, film and edit their own news report, movie trailer and more. We do it to broaden their horizons. To show them what a career in the media could be like. And to help them explore how creative they can be.

There’s a huge digital skills gap in the UK and Europe, and it has a big impact on businesses like ours. It makes everyone worse off. People lose the ability to build rewarding careers. Businesses are held back. And the UK economy stands to lose £28 billion in economic value within the next decade. So we’re working hard to give people from all walks of life the skills they need to future-proof their careers and get their next big break in the media and tech industries.

Giving people their big break

Opportunities

Inspiration: Raising young people's aspirations

Sky Up Hubs

We’re setting up 100 hubs in the most vulnerable communities across the UK, Ireland and Italy. We’re giving people basic digital skills and access to the internet. Two out of every ten school children don’t have access to a digital device to do their homework. And four out of ten people aged 65 and over don't feel confident using a smartphone or tablet. Our Sky Up Hubs are changing that, helping young people and older generations to live their best life, in our increasingly digital world.

Sky Up Grants

Our Sky Up Grants for care leavers give young people the technology and internet access they need to find work, socialise, access digital services and thrive. To celebrate National Care Leavers week, Sky sat down with Leonnie, beneficiary of the Sky Up Grant to discuss the impact the programme has had on her life.

Going further with The Edit

Every year, we reach even more children, thanks to The Edit, our partnership with Adobe. The Edit is a digital storytelling challenge that gives young people the chance to create a 90-second news report. Using Adobe’s editing software and Sky’s news footage, thousands of students are creating their own stories, in the comfort of their classrooms. It’s building their skills and broadening their horizons.

Sky Up Academy

Sky Up Academy inspires school children with a new sense of what they can do, and who they can be. Our experts support young people to create their own news reports, movie trailers and more in our state-of-the-art studios. Or we bring the Sky Up Academy experience directly to schools through our touring e-vehicles. This shows young people what a creative career in the media would be like. And it teaches them the skills they need to thrive in a digital world – from digital literacy, to teamwork, to the confidence to tell their own stories. Sky Up Academy is free, and open to students in the UK aged 8-18. Since 2012, we’ve reached nearly 360,000 young people. We aim to inspire half a million by 2025.

We also work with teams across Sky, to inspire children with new possibilities. Sky Arts Access All Arts week gets thousands of primary school children experimenting with art. Our partnership with Rise Up and Code Camp empowers kids to get coding. And we’re working with Sir Lewis Hamilton’s foundation, Mission 44, to prevent school exclusions, enabling kids to stay in school and thrive.

Inspiring kids with art, technology and more

MAMA Youth

For years, we’ve partnered with MAMA Youth to give young people from under-represented backgrounds the opportunity to gain vital paid work experience to kick-start their careers.

Early careers

From Sky News and Sky Sports to Sky Studios Elstree, our specialist teams are supporting young people from all backgrounds to break into the industry and build fulfilling careers. Sky Up Career Days give young people from the communities we support insight into potential careers.

It can be hard to find your way in the world of work. And it can feel impossible to get that first break to kick-start a rewarding career. On top of that, there’s a digital skills gap in the UK and Europe, which is making everyone worse off. It’s widening the gap between the most disadvantaged and the most privileged people in society. So we’re working hard to give people from all walks of life new skills and their next big break in the media and tech industries.

Opportunities: Giving people their next big break

Black Equity Organisation

Through our partnership with the Black Equity Organisation, we’re supporting entrepreneurs to take their businesses to the next level.

Women in tech

Within the tech industry, women are under-represented. We’re working to change that, providing training and support to women who want to break into the technology industry.

Join The Edit

Apply here

Creating culture and jobs

Cutting emissions with Sky Zero

Impact home

Find out more

Everyone deserves the chance to fulfil their potential. Too many people are held back, simply because they can’t get online. Or because they never had the opportunity to build their confidence and skills. Through Sky Up, we’re changing that.

Helping people to fulfil their potential

Changing lives with Sky Up

Watch