Routes to Tech
New training pathways to tech careers in the UK
We have a shortage of tech-skilled workers in the UK. Tech job opportunities have hit a 10-year high according to research by Tech Nation and DCMS estimated that the digital skills gap is costing up to £63 billion in lost potential GDP. To address this demand, we need to train more people and support them into tech roles starting now and continuing indefinitely and at scale.
Traditional routes to tech, including multi-year university degrees, have enormous value but cannot produce work-ready talent fast enough to meet the demand. There is a growing need to explore routes to tech through non-traditional digital skills provision, including short courses, bootcamps, and other intensive programmes.
Since 2021, TTC has been conducting research relating to routes to tech, developing a multi-phase project that has brought together employers, digital skills providers, and government to capture best-practice, areas of need, and suggested ways forward.
Findings from the initial research
Phase 1 research release:
Hiring managers' perceptions of non-traditional routes to tech
During the first phase of the project, we worked with the Institute of Coding (IoC) and Attest to undertake research to understand how learners from tech/digital skills providers and other alternative routes into tech are perceived by tech hiring managers.
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Phase 2 research release:
Learner perceptions of non-traditional tech training pathways
For the second phase of research Tech Talent Charter, supported by DSIT and Attest, conducted surveys with UK tech workers on their learning experiences with different types of tech education and training providers to understand how they feel about different routes to tech careers.