Built to be taken seriously.
DIG exists because there is a gap between finishing a digital strategy program and being trusted with strategy work. The way to close it is not another simulated brief, it is a real client with a real problem and someone senior accountable for the outcome.
Why it exists
Every term a small cohort is selected from the Digital Engagement Strategy program and put to work as a junior consulting team. They build portfolio-ready experience, practise strategic thinking and client-ready communication, and apply what they have learned somewhere the stakes are not hypothetical.
This is about how you think and communicate, not just what you can execute.
That is also why the work is strategy-first rather than tool-first. Tools change, and a graduate who has only been taught this year’s platform has been taught something with a short shelf life. Framing a problem, defending a recommendation, and presenting it to someone who is paying attention are the parts that keep.
Who stands behind the work
Dr. Andrew Ko
Managing Director
Professor in the Digital Engagement Strategy program, and previously co-founder of two venture-backed companies in Manchester: Moment.Us, a consumer music platform, and Personalyze, a behavioural intelligence platform serving enterprise clients across the UK, Europe, Asia and North America. His doctoral research at Alliance Manchester Business School examined how people form connections through digital products, which is the same question most client briefs turn out to be asking.
Jason Beaulieu
Program Coordinator, Digital Engagement Strategy
Co-founded DIG and coordinates the program the cohort is drawn from, which is what keeps selection honest and the engagements tied to what students are actually being taught. Shares faculty oversight on every project.
Every engagement carries faculty oversight. Students run the work; the accountability for what reaches a client does not sit with them.
Where it sits
DIG operates inside the Digital Engagement Strategy program at Centennial College in Toronto. That is what makes the rest of it possible: access to a cohort worth selecting from, faculty who can stand behind the work, and the standing to approach clients as an institution rather than as individuals.
It is built to outlast any one cohort, and any one person running it.
Work with the cohort
If you have a brief that would suit a strategy-first team, get in touch and we will tell you honestly whether it is a good fit for the term ahead.