TECHNOLOGY

Digital Leeds

Chamber gets behind City-wide initiative to support a diverse future for digital in Leeds

Prominent digital, education and public sector organisations across Leeds have joined forces with social enterprise Ahead Partnership to launch an initiative to help address skills gaps and break down longstanding barriers around digital sector careers. With almost 35,000 people employed in digital in Leeds alone but many businesses still reporting difficulty recruiting candidates with the right skills, the collaborative initiative takes action to develop and diversify the city’s future pipeline of digital talent. The launch event for Growing Talent Digital Leeds took place on 30th September at BJSS’ Leeds city centre headquarters as part of Leeds Digital Festival. Throughout the next year and beyond, Infinity Works; Netcompany; BJSS; AND Digital; the NHS, Leeds Trinity University; Leeds City College; and Leeds City Council will lead a growing group of employers in sponsoring a range of exciting careers and skills activities delivered by Ahead Partnership, including masterclasses, careers panels, festivals and events designed to help young people understand the importance of digital skills for future roles. The employer-led programme is aimed at young people aged 11-18 years old and will prioritise under-represented groups and areas in the city, helping to break down barriers of perception, prejudice and unconscious bias around the digital sector and encourage greater diversity and inclusion within the future workforce. With up to 87% of advertised jobs in the UK requiring digital skills, the initiative will also highlight the integral role that digital plays in many of today’s careers and industries, involving digital partners with expertise in fields from engineering to IT consultancy and video games development. Stephanie Burras CBE, Chief Executive at Ahead Partnership, a social enterprise that works with businesses of different sizes and sectors to design and deliver social value projects that create positive change within society, said: “The importance of digital in today’s working world is only increasing, and so we’ve been delivering a number of initiatives throughout recent years to support the future success of the industry. Now, with the pandemic only emphasising the need for skilled digital talent, Growing Talent Digital Leeds is a really timely programme that will engage a wide range of young people with the sector for the benefit of their future careers. “Leeds has a thriving business community, and digital plays a significant role in this – from the tech companies and start-ups who operate from the city centre to the skilled digital workers that play a pivotal role in organisations in other industries. It’s fantastic to see so many of these organisations across the city signing up as partners and pledging their support to the initiative. We can’t wait to get started. “Ultimately this is an initiative which will benefit businesses from many sectors and so we have invited the Chamber to join our steering group in order that our messages can be shared across their networks. I am delighted that Leeds Chamber Vice President and CEO of Leeds-List.com has agreed to join us and we look forward to working with the Chamber over the coming months and years.” Dan Murray said “The availability and diversity of quality digital talent in Leeds is a long standing issue for the sector and the city which is why we’re firmly behind this initiative. Growing Talent Digital Leeds will help tackle social mobility, and deliver fantastic prospects for kids from ‘left behind’ districts of Leeds whilst building the future talent pipeline our industry desperately needs. It’s a win-win.”

Reboot

for tech sector

“Leeds has a thriving business community, and digital plays a significant role in this – from the tech companies and startups who operate from the city centre to the skilled digital workers that play a pivotal role in organisations in other industries.”

The region’s digital sector fared somewhat differently when compared to many over the last 18 months. Though certainly not without its challenges, the industry has largely weathered the storm particularly well, bolstered by an economy-wide shift towards online working and virtual meetings, a practice many in the sector had adopted long before the pandemic.

Technology firms are said to number around 11,000 across Yorkshire, employing some 54,000. In relative terms, the sector makes up 6% of all Yorkshire-based businesses, generating over £9bn in value, which accounts for 2% of the regional GDP. In a recent round of consultations, the Chamber of Commerce has identified a number of key areas for development within the sector. The most pressing of these lands squarely on the issue of recruitment. Many tech businesses, particularly start-ups, report a struggle to compete for graduates with the industry giants. Though a pre-existing challenge, and not one unique to the sector, Chamber research has reported that it has been compounded by the rise of remote working, where in Londonbased firms have been snapping up regionally-based talent on salaries local start-ups simply can’t match. In order to mitigate labour shortages, many firms are turning to coding ‘bootcamp’ courses, allowing new recruits to be brought up to speed in modular format, bypassing the traditional three-to-four year university model. The implementation of bootcamp-style upskilling (and increasingly reskilling) is a notable hallmark of innovation that is no doubt driving the sector forward, and poses many questions in regards to how firms across all sectors may approach developing their workforce. Research also indicates that the region’s tech businesses have been hampered by global supply shortage, primarily impacting costs and lead times on key resources such as computer chips. The move to remote working, itself a huge opportunity for many in the sector, also exacerbated supply issues for many developers and retailers.