E-skills approached Milo to work with them to develop and user test a strategy for engaging teenagers in careers within the IT sector. No easy task when you realise that for teenagers IT is synonymous with the IT crowd!

The initiative focuses on helping 14-19 year olds make informed choices in an inspiring and accessible way, stimulating demand among young people for technology-related degrees and careers and improving the gender imbalance in IT.

To achieve this strategy we developed a series of website design concepts and editorial approaches that were centred upon careers in the digital sector. The designs were tested with young people to validate the approach and identify their motivations and inspirations.

The insights that were identified informed the design and development of a website that is high impact and student centred: goal orientated, needs driven, intuitive and accessible that can be tailored to individual needs and wants.

Following the intensive period of user testing and consultancy Milo went on to the design and build process of the Big Ambition website. We worked extremely closely with e-skills making sure they were involved in the development of their product and identity throughout the project lifecycle.

To reach the younger segment of the audience, e-skills commissioned Milo to put together a learning app for iPhone and iPod Touch. The aim of the app is to show the skills required for various job types through simple game play.

The Big Ambition website featured interactive tools including “Dream Job”, "Make It!", “Progression routes” and the “Did You Know?” game. The "Progression Routes" activity used Flash PaperVision to create a 3D space where young people could identify their own routes to their chosen IT careers. Progression Routes has been used on both Big Ambition and Bring IT On.

A key part of this Big Ambition project was creating a series of compelling, short, documentary films for the Big Ambition website. They take a look at how leading companies in the UK are innovating with technology.

The films inform young people about careers within technology and illustrate the breadth of opportunities available. We have worked with e-skills to select a broad range of companies to illustrate the diversity of the IT sector and show how rewarding a career in IT can be.

The ‘Making of Big Ambition’ video features interviews with the Milo team who talk about the design process and the challenges that we encountered along the way. All together we created 15 films about organisations that include MySpace, Tate, last.fm, Plain Lazy, BBC Backstage, Roundhouse, ITV, British Airways, Transport for London, BT, Cisco, Red2 and Microsoft.

milo are an outstanding agency to work with and have consistently delivered over and above our expectations. Their design and development work is excellent and we have found that their process of understanding the end-user and designing the site accordingly brings great dividends!

Greg Welch, e-skills UK

The campaign was succesful in England and was expanded to Northern Ireland under the banner of Bring IT On, Wales and Scotland.