Digital Mums
# Digital Mums

Digital Mums is a private education organisation founded by Co-CEOs Nikki Cochrane and Kathryn Tyler in late 2013. The organisation is based in the UK and upskills mothers in practical digital skills. The organisation directs its focus on providing part-time, online courses that help equip graduates with job-ready skills so they can create flexible freelance careers. 10% of all their profits go into a Community Interest Company that funds women from low-income backgrounds to be able to do their training.

## History

Digital Mums began in 2013 as a social media marketing agency in Hackney, London founded by Kathryn Tyler and Nikki Cochrane. After the founders read a report by the Fawcett Society that found fiscal measures taken to reduce net public spending in the UK would have a disproportionate effect on women, it evolved into a training organisation focused on upskilling mothers. In 2014 they received £50,000 of seed investment money from The Big Issue Invest to support their efforts. In March 2016 the company raised £285,000 in private equity and social investment funding to further scale the business.

In October 2016 the Co-Founders were jointly awarded Red Magazine's Woman of the Year award in recognition of Digital Mums’ contribution to reducing maternal discrimination in the UK.

## Course Offerings

Digital Mums offers immersive, vocational courses in social media marketing lasting six and 12 months. Their courses are completed remotely and online, and incorporate real-life projects to get students job-ready.

Digital Mums has been accredited by the CPD Standards Office. They also offer Professional Career Development Loans through the UK government’s Skills Funding Agency, to help students in need of financial assistance fund their learning.

## Campaigns

Digital Mums has initiated several national campaigns supporting a number of causes related to flexible working and parenting.

In February 2016, they launched a campaign in response to the controversial Motherhood Challenge, a Facebook campaign where mothers posted photos of themselves with their kids and tagged other women who they thought to be ‘awesome’ mothers. Their hashtag campaign #RealMumMoments was a bid to show “motherhood is never perfect and far from easy” by providing a humorous spin on the Motherhood Challenge.

In September 2016, they produced a report in conjunction with the Centre for Economics and Business Research to look into the flexible working landscape for mothers in the UK. They found “...more than two thirds of stay-at-home mothers with young children would go back to work if flexible working was an option." They launched their #WorkThatWorks Movement in response to these figures as a way of opening up conversations around flexible working to support their drive to help mothers find rewarding careers that fit their skills and family life.

In July 2017, the organisation launched their second campaign under the #WorkThatWorks Movement called #CleanUpTheFWord, which aimed to change the negative perception of flexible working. The campaign focused on new research conducted with YouGov that showed 7 in 10 UK employees want flexible work but over half fear it would be viewed negatively by their employer. They petitioned the UK government to change its definition of flexible working from "a way of working that suits an employee’s needs" to one that focuses on the benefits to employers too. Their campaign attracted the attention of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission who they worked with on a new definition for flexible working.

