Despite the current leadership contest within the Government, high inflation and a possible recession, the UK is still in a great place to continue developing the tech industry across the regions. 

There has never been a more critical time to focus on creating more high value jobs and high productivity, or to focus on developing the regional tech eco-systems.

As chair of the UK Tech Cluster Group, I have recently been appointed onto the Government’s Digital Skills Council, along with a number of other ministers, academics, tech organisations and tech entrepreneurs to work together to address current and future needs for digital skills and to develop more digital jobs. 

The council has been set up to: 

• promote routes into digital careers and opportunities for the labour market to re-skill and up-skill to meet current and future employer needs
• increase awareness of resources that enable pathways into digital and digitally enabled jobs for workers in non-digital roles
• promote mechanisms to provide increasingly diverse access to digital roles and digitally enabled roles

A changing society 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many businesses had to undergo speedy digital transformation to keep up with demand and are still seeing increased sales due to ongoing changing consumer habits. 

The future is digital – this has been known for a long-time, but we need to ensure that we have a workforce with the right tech skills to develop the whole of the UK as a global tech powerhouse. The Government has ambitious aims to transform the UK into a digital economy – but there is still an enormous job to do closing the growing tech skills gap, in upskilling the workforce, and developing more tech-focused talent pathways right from early school-age. 

Driving forward the tech agenda 

We are looking forward to working together as a group of tech leaders, ministers and organisations to develop the UK regional tech industry and help it thrive and flourish. Bringing experts together with in-depth knowledge of the regional ecosystem is the best way to develop a strong tech-based future across the whole of the UK. 

By Katie Gallagher, chair of the UK Tech Cluster Group and MD of Manchester Digital

The Government announced its new Digital Strategy today, coinciding with London Tech Week, which is a little bit ironic, given all its talk of levelling up to the regions over the past year. However, it is heartening to see that there is acknowledgment of the growing importance of regional tech ecosystems with the government predicting that regional ecosystems could contribute an additional £41.4bn to GVA by 2025.

The document is an update to its predecessor from 2017 – which seems far more than five years ago, given everything that has happened in the UK since then. 

As the UK economy falters after the pandemic spending spree, the Government is placing its hope for the future in tech, digital and innovation. The report states that the UK saw £27.4 billion private capital invested in tech last year, more than any other European country. Cisco predicts that a more inclusive digital strategy could add £168 billion to the UK economy by 2030. The updated vision from DCMS is that the UK will be the best place in the world to start and grow a tech business.  

The newly released paper covers six areas that the Government will focus on to achieve their aims: 

New digital regulations – creating a digital infrastructure to protect citizens and ensure that tech and digital security and intellectual property is defended. 

Ideas and intellectual property – Government investment into research and development as well as R&D tax incentives, as well as growing AI, next-generation semi-conductors, digital twins, autonomous systems and quantum computing. 

Digital skills and talent – working with schools, universities and further education to develop tech and digital skills, as well as continuing to invest in apprenticeships, T-Levels and other digital training – and opening up new visa routes. 

Financing digital growth – continuing to support innovation and growth financing, as well as continuing to promote the London Stock Exchange. 

Levelling up and public services – creating better access to digital technologies across the whole of the UK. 

Enhancing the UK’s place as a global tech power – promoting better global trade, which is also linked to a forthcoming International Tech Strategy. 

I have recently been appointed to the Government’s Digital Skills Council which is currently looking at how we can combine the levelling up agenda with digital skills and tech growth. If this Government is going to create an enviable global tech hub, then it must work quickly to include the whole of the UK, and not just London. 

As chair of the UK Tech Cluster Group, I work hard with colleagues from the other regions and nations to raise the  profile of regional tech ecosystems and help national and regional governments understand the best ways to support and grow them.

Across the UK, regional tech ecosystems have many of the same core issues but they are also at different stages of their development, with different specialisms and differing levels of provision, whether that is access to funding, the right skills supply or scale up support.

The only way that levelling up the tech industry will work is if it happens at a grass roots level and any intervention from the Government is flexible enough to meet the nuanced needs of the regions and nations. 

In addition to this, the regional tech eco-systems have a huge role to play in developing R&D capacity, in terms of outgoings and cost, so I would love to see these assets developed. While they have less capital outgoings on rent, salaries etc, there is more budget available to go into equipment and research. A relatively small number of highly innovative and fast-growing businesses, stemming from this localised innovation, can make a huge difference to the prosperity of smaller towns and cities.

Overall, we welcome the new Digital Strategy and its ambitions. However, it is absolutely vital for the Government to realise what already exists in the regions. Grassroots tech organisations work incredibly hard to support start-ups, create role model programmes for youngsters and developing tech apprenticeships – all without huge amounts of investment. 

Imagine what we could achieve with significant amounts of investment…

Manchester Digital will be working in partnership with The Prince’s Trust to deliver an innovative digital skills project as part of the Sustainable Futures Fund.

They will be working with Wigan Council and employer partners such as Auto Trader, BJSS and Zuhlke to design and deliver an exciting new digital skills training programme that will provide mentoring and training in some of the future-focused, non-coding related job roles and skillsets that businesses report as growing in importance for them in the next 3-5 years within the industry.

Young people taking part will learn about a variety of roles such as Digital Project Management, User Experience Design and Research, and Digital Marketing for business, and will be able to put their learning into practice through a live project brief from employers whilst gaining vital work experience.

The strength of this programme lies within its integrated collaboration model, ensuring the young people are holistically supported through the programme and beyond.

The leader of Wigan Council, Councillor David Molyneux said: “Equipping our young people with the skill they need to grow as future leaders is a key priority for the council.

“This programme will provide vital expertise and advice to the next generation, helping them to grow in confidence and excel in their careers. It will also complement the opportunities we created in 2019 through the Apprenticeships for Young People scheme, which helped our young people get onto the career ladder in specific fields, including digital.

“The importance of this sector has risen in recent years but we have seen the value of digital capabilities even more-so throughout the pandemic. We look forward to working with Manchester Digital and The Princes Trust to watch more of our young people flourish and we can’t wait to see their creativity come to the fore.”

Employer partners said: “This project will really start to create pathways for a more diverse group of young people to access opportunities within our industry. We strongly believe that training programmes co-designed and delivered by expertise from within the industry have the most impact. We’re looking forward to helping to elevate awareness of and connection to diverse real role models for young people in Wigan to be inspired. “

Manchester Digital has announced its plans for the next 12 months of the ground-breaking Digital Her programme.

Since its inception, Digital Her has aimed to encourage more women into the digital and tech industry by offering support, guidance and opportunities. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the programme reached over 2000 young women in the past year.

To coincide with International Women in Engineering Day, Manchester Digital announced their supporters for the year ahead, including returning sponsor Auto Trader, new sponsors BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, Bruntwood SciTech and KPMG.

Their plans for the next 12 months include more interactive employer designed and delivered digital skills and career insights workshops, real role model engagement, as well as Women Talk events and meetups. They will also be introducing the Digital Her mentor programme (Mentor Her).

Read more about Digital Her.

Find out about the results of our 2021 skills audit of more than 800 tech businesses and professionals.

Manchester Digital has launched a free guide with advice for employers as lockdown restrictions are slowly lifted.

Created in partnership with senior HR specialists from Manchester Digital’s Employer’s Forum group, the guide lays out key considerations for employers in areas including people, office environments, employee health, home working, business travel and visitors, holidays and communications.

The guide can be downloaded for free here.

Katie Gallagher, managing director at Manchester Digital, said: “Even with restrictions eased slightly, the virus still presents a high risk, which will impact how businesses operate, and in particular how and when offices can safely re-open.

“Our free guide is intended to pose questions and considerations to employers as they’re thinking about the short, medium and long term plans for their business operations post lockdown. Of course, change is inevitable, so employers will need to remain flexible and able to respond quickly.”

The coronavirus has had a serious impact on Greater Manchester’s technology sector and Manchester Digital is here to support the region and its businesses.

Manchester Digital’s COVID-19 revealed that for most businesses, the most impactful way the organisation could help was to use its platform and network to allow businesses to maintain an online presence and a connection with other businesses that may require their services.

For that reason, Manchester Digital has come the decision to offer free membership to the wider sector.

Benefits include:

• The promotion of a company’s news, initiatives or offers
• Helping to increase the audience attending a company’s online events and webinars
• Aiding business’s recruitment drive via access to a job board and enhanced profiling
• Access to research, resources and support
• The ability to connect and network with other members of Manchester Digital’s community
• The ability to feed into Manchester Digital’s lobbying work around business support for the tech sector during the Corona pandemic.

What else are Manchester Digital doing?

#MDTechCommunity Slack Channel – The organisation’s Slack channel boasts over 250 members and a dedicated #coronavirus channel in which members are sharing tips, advice, and camaraderie.

Content – Manchester Digital has also been creating content to help the sector, and will continue to do so. Some examples of the information it has shared can be found below.

• Coronavirus: What support is available for tech businesses?
• Coronavirus: Looking after employee’s mental health and wellbeing
• COVID-19: A list of useful resources
• Cyber Security Advice for businesses in response to COVID-19 
• Freelancer Hangout: COVID-19 advice for the self-employed

Want to raise your profile?

If you want us to help you to raise your profile, contact michael@manchesterdigital.com to arrange sharing your news, jobs or events on their site.