During this year’s London Tech Week, news broke that investment in UK technology start-ups and scale-ups had reached a record £13.5 billion in the first half of 2021 alone. This is almost triple the figure achieved at the midpoint of 2020. Twenty unicorn companies were created in just six months, bringing the UK’s total to 105; more than France and Germany combined. Unicorns are privately held start-up companies valued at over $1bn.
The tech revolution, prime minister Boris Johnson commented, “is creating jobs, driving growth, and boosting investment across the country.” However, job creation doesn’t always go hand-in-hand with job vacancy fulfilment.
According to a recent Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport report, the cyber-security sector faces a shortfall of 10,000 people a year. And cyber security isn’t the only market to be impacted. DCMS recently highlighted a ‘data skills shortage’, with up to 234,000 job roles requiring data skills...