Growing Talent:
Increasing social mobility
in the Leeds Digital Sector

Comments from Suzie Bell, Project Lead of Growing Talent Digital Leeds and Project Manager at Ahead Partnership

On Tuesday 24 October we were thrilled to welcome stakeholders from across business and education to the BJSS offices for ‘Growing Talent: Increasing social mobility in the Leeds Digital Sector’ an event to celebrate the successes of the last two years of Growing Talent Digital Leeds, and to update everyone on our future plans.

It was fantastic to see key players from across the city represented at the event, including speakers from our programme sponsors BJSS , Netcompany and Aire Logic Limited, our education partner Carr Manor Community School, our partner Arcadis and our stakeholders Leeds City Council and the 100% Digital Leeds team.

Our panellists spoke passionately about how leaders need to take responsibility for smashing the glass ceiling from the top down to create real diversity, a powerful image which highlighted why diversity in all forms is so important at the leadership level. We were joined by a representative from one of our sponsors who stressed the importance of social value work to attracting and retaining future talent. She shared that at her interview for her current role she asked, “What kind of social value does the organisation offer?” and the answer was a key factor in her decision to join the organisation.

We also gained a valuable perspective from education, as our teacher panellist explained that school curriculums struggle to keep up with the increasing pace of change within the digital sector. He stressed how integral it is for businesses to engage with and advise schools if they want to close the skills gap and expect a skilled workforce in the future.

Our esteemed programme sponsors also spoke about the positives that being involved in Growing Talent Digital Leeds has brought to their organisation and told us the sense of responsibility they feel as a locally founded employer to impact long term change for the city’s young people, and how much more they have been able to achieve being part of the Growing Talent programme managed by Ahead Partnership. Anchor sponsors of the programme receive annual bespoke reporting on their impact and they highlighted how crucial that is to their social value strategy.

One of the key themes of the event was the power of collaboration to effect long term change. The 100% Digital Team collaborated with us on a social action project focused on digital inclusion in 2023 and highlighted how useful it was for them to work with young people as a consultation piece and the insight this provided for their team. This unique project showcased how youth consultation and youth voice activities can be incorporated into the programme to benefit young people and organisations by empowering young people to share their ideas and input.

Now in its third year, Growing Talent Digital Leeds aims to educate young people on the Leeds City Region’s thriving digital sector, and all the amazing career opportunities it offers for their future. Through the programme, we empower employers to nurture home-grown talent and show young people that they don’t necessarily have to go to university or move to London to have a thriving career in the digital sector. There are so many world-class businesses in Leeds with different routes into early careers such as bootcamps, apprenticeships and internships, right on their doorstep.

By targeting the schools in Leeds with the highest numbers of pupil premium students, we aim to increase social mobility in the city while also supporting the industry to build a diverse pipeline of talent. To date we have reached 25,000 students and are aiming to reach thousands more in the years to come. Through flagship events such as #GirlTechLeeds, we bring together hundreds of young women and non-binary young people with industry-leading businesses in a single event to explore the variety of careers open to them within the digital and tech sector.

From large-scale events to smaller, targeted activities, all our Growing Talent programmes are focused on providing multiple interventions to engage students across their journey through education. Did you know that a young person who has four or more encounters with an employer is 86% less likely to be unemployed or not in education or training, and can earn up to 22% more during their career? (Education & Employer’s taskforce). This statistic seemed to really resonate with attendees on Tuesday, including those who have previously volunteered through the programme. There was a sense that through every volunteering opportunity, you are helping to make a difference to the prospects of the young people we support, and the cumulative effect of this can be massive.

That’s why we continue to build upon the successes of Growing Talent Digital Leeds with the aim of engaging even more young people in the city through multiple, meaningful contacts with aspirational businesses and professionals. If you would like to be part of the collective of organisations and volunteers helping to increase social mobility in the Leeds digital sector, please reach out to me directly. There are so many ways you can get involved and we are always looking for supporters who share a passion for our cause.  Register your interest here https://bit.ly/3tPv650