I had the pleasure of attending the TLA event at Bloomberg offices in London on 28th October. It was a great event, capably compered by Oli Barrett. He was an engaging and enthusiastic devil’s advocate for the evening and as a result we got to the nub of a lot of issues.
What became very clear from the event is that we struggle in London and the UK with a shortage of skills at all levels. We benefitted from so many speakers who were passionate and knowledgeable about their subjects. Those that stood out were: Ruben Kostucki, Makers Academy; Katarina Jones, Startup Institute; Mark Fawcett, National Schools Partnership; Mark Martin, Urban Teacher; Maggie Philbin, TeenTech
Early on Maggie Philbin gave a great overview of the work she is doing as part of her role in the UK Digital Skills Taskforce about digital skills for young people. Although we now have coding taught in schools, it still hasn’t addressed the issue of young people and their parents not knowing what jobs people actually do in the digital/tech sector and what it means for their educational choices. A great takeaway for me from Maggie, ‘Never underestimate your own power to make a difference’.
Following that we had a great panel talking about what is available to those starting out or wanting to retrain. It looked at how graduates are equipped (or not) in this new world and whether the universities are knowledgeable enough of the emerging technologies and platforms. Finally, we had a great panel of those on the front line of teaching who were very open and honest about the support they needed from the private sector to help children train for the future.
If you are a TLA, you can help with addressing these issues by joining one of the working groups: MadTech (Marketing and Advertising); HealthTech; Going for Growth; Infrastructure; Talent and Immigration; Women in London Tech; Education. If you aren’t and want to get involved, I would be happy to introduce you to Russ.
Ghilaine
@LadyGhilaine
Tech Talkfest 