DIGITALLY savvy teenagers have become the first in a Tees Valley town to benefit from a programme designed to develop their skills in an area of key economic growth.

The pupils at Carmel Academy, in Darlington, are taking part in an phone app design project in conjunction with Digital City.

The five two-hour sessions are being delivered by digital entrepreneur Dan Kolodziej, 32, who leads cluster development for the Digital City initiative in the Darlington area.

The Foundation for Jobs campaign, which works to connect schools with business, acted as intermediary between Carmel and Digital City, which had previously delivered the project in a Middlesbrough school.

Mr Kolodziej, 32, who was himself a former pupil at Carmel before going on to develop his own digital business, came to international prominence in February when his company developed the Would Love 2 dating app.

The app, aimed at helping those looking for love, was picked up by news media as far apart as India and the US, to coincide with Valentines Day.

Mr Kolodziej, a Teesside University graduate, said: “The opportunities are there but there is a distinct lack of the right skills both in the UK and to a certain degree the US.

“These jobs are there in a high value and interesting sector, school pupils need to be made aware they exist, it is about providing that little bit of information.”

The Digital sector is seen as a key creator of jobs in the North-East going forward.

Key aims of Foundation for Jobs are to raise young people’s awareness of the sectors in which jobs will be created in the region, give them an understanding of the skills needed and also ensure they realise they already have an understanding and grasp of many of the skills employees need.

Foundation for Jobs is a national award winning campaign to tackle youth unemployment, led by The Northern Echo, Darlington Borough Council and the Darlington Partnership, of private sector business and public sector organisations.

The Digital City initiative aims to ensure that the North-East’s brightest minds in the digital sector see the Tees Valley as the ideal place to develop their businesses, rather than moving to other parts of the UK.

The project is delivered by two organisations — DigitalCity Innovation at Teesside University and DigitalCity Business based at the Boho Zone in the centre of Middlesbrough.

For further details on Foundation for Jobs contact owen.mcateer@darlington.gov.uk and for more information on Digital City go to thedigitalcity.org