Why tech firms in Yorkshire should consider alternative pipelines for talent

It launched in Yorkshire last year and is already working with the likes of Sky Bet, Sky, BJSS, Infinity Works, KPMG and The Data Shed.

Jess Sewter, partnerships director at Generation UK, told The Yorkshire Post that tech businesses should “use and think about different pipelines of talent”.

Firms can also build a good talent pipeline by widening opportunities through more junior and entry level roles coupled with career progression

Ms Sewter said: “Use your traditional ways – universities, colleges or schools – but also think about boot camps and other similar provisions.”

She added: “It’s a viable way to address skill shortages and to help with youth unemployment.”

The partnerships director at Generation UK hopes to encourage firms to invest and recruit in their local communities.

“Something I’m passionate about is that we connect all of the communities within Yorkshire to the high growth sectors within Yorkshire,” Ms Sewter says, “because it doesn’t feel right that there are these high-growth sectors and the communities around them in that region aren’t benefiting from that as well.”

The pandemic has shone a light on the digital divide in the country with children from disadvantaged backgrounds struggling to keep up with school lessons during lockdowns due to a lack of access to basic IT equipment.

“I would say about half of our cohorts don’t have a laptop that they can work from and about a third don’t have wifi,” Ms Sewter said.

The charity, founded in 2015 and established in the UK in 2019, has mainly been working with young people aged between 18 and 30.

However, as a result of an uplift in older people struggling to get back into work following the pandemic, it has started working with all ages.

“We’re seeing there’s a real demand there,” Ms Sewter says. “We’re now an employment charity rather than a youth employment charity.”

So far in Yorkshire, where Generation only really started operations halfway through 2021, the charity has had 60 learners on its programme.

Ms Sewter said: “We’ve got about a 60 per cent job placement rate although we are still placing them now because they’ve only just finished. We have rolling boot camps throughout the year.

“We aim to get 85 per cent placed within three months. There’s a very strong focus on getting them into work.

“We’re aiming to do another 300 this year. Then we’re going to double and grow each year.

“Nationally, we’re going to be doing 1,000. We helped 600 into work nationally last year.”

The partnerships director at Generation UK believes there needs to be more awareness among young people of the career opportunities that exist in tech.

“It really suits the way young people are living, connecting and communicating,” Ms Sewter says.

She added: “But also it’s a route that they’re not aware of. There are a lot of young people that just don’t know about the roles and the breadth of opportunity within the space for them.”

For more information on Generation UK and the boot camps it runs, visit https://uk.generation.org/

‘Learning needs to be engaging’

Encouraging young people into tech careers is difficult because of the way the curriculum is structured in schools.

Jess Sewter said: “There’s a concept in schools that only people who are really good at computers can do the GCSE in computer science.”

She added: “It needs to be seen as something that’s creative, fun, engaging and dynamic – all of the things it is when people are in the workplace.”

Boot camps can help break this cycle and introduce those that previously may have seen a career in tech as being out of reach to opportunities, Ms Sewter believes.

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