Carly Becker Class of 2006

Multiverse is an edtech company on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by building an alternative to university and corporate training through tech apprenticeships. It is one of the UK’s most successful startups, having recently reached ‘unicorn’ status and been named on Fast Company’s global list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. Carly Becker (Class of 2006) is Multiverse’s VP Customer Success, where she leads the business’ partnership with companies such as Morgan Stanley, Sky and the NHS to drive the demonstrable impact of apprentices on digital transformation, closing skills gaps and reaching a more diverse population.

The existing education system is not producing people with the technical skills they need to succeed in a digital career - as proven by the huge number of vacancies for these roles. Europe has a shortage of five million software engineers and in the UK alone the Government claims there are 100,000 unfilled positions in data. Continued automation means that skills shortages also won’t stop for those that are currently employed: 85% of the jobs that will exist by 2030 haven’t been invented yet. Everyone is going to need an element of retraining in the digital revolution.

To solve this crisis transforming our approach to education is essential. At Multiverse, we believe that apprenticeships in tech have a huge role to play in both future-proofing the economy and driving equity in the workplace. We know that talented people are everywhere, but opportunity is not. Mutilverse provides apprenticeships to young adults and those looking to reskill;

12-15 month programmes that train individuals in in-demand skills such as software engineering, digital marketing, and data analytics. Apprentices pay nothing for their training and earn a salary while they learn. They benefit from personalised coaching, applied learning, and a community of social, networking and leadership opportunities.

Apprenticeships are brilliant for people starting their careers. Apprentices like Fatima, who left the care system and is now a software developer apprentice at one of the UK’s leading fashion brands. She passed on university and the huge amount of debt that comes with it, instead earning a great salary whilst developing skills that will benefit her for life. By removing the blockers that university places, apprenticeships have enabled a diverse cohort of individuals to enter exciting new fields at top employers. At Multiverse, 40% of the apprentices we place have claimed free school meals, more than half are from minority ethnic backgrounds, and 57% are women. In comparison, only 3.4% of those claiming free school meals make it to a top tariff university.

What’s just as important is what apprenticeship can do for those whose roles are at risk from automation. Helping warehouse workers, for example, develop the digital skills to take charge of the data affecting their industries is a win for both the individuals and the companies they work for. Even if we can’t predict what jobs will look like in the future, we know what we can do is prepare individuals and give them the career resilience to flex when it comes. That means providing repeated opportunities for upskilling, education you can return to, and a focus on core skills like data analysis or project management, that are applicable across multiple career tracks. One of the things that’s so broken about the existing education system is the assumption that a three year undergraduate degree is enough training to support a multi-decade career. We can confidently predict technological redundancy will be a bigger part of the conversation, and with it, the steps we need to give people career resilience.

So next time you think of an apprentice, don’t limit yourself to a young person in a hard hat: there is a huge amount of opportunity for people at all stages of their career to benefit from applied learning and digital skills, and to make the boardrooms of the future more diverse in the process.