Much has been written about the cluster of new tech businesses over the last three years, not least because it offers good news about an economic recovery.
A tale of Tech City
Back in 2012, the Centre for London think tank published A Tale of Tech City, which sought to get behind the hype by performing detailed number crunching to establish just how many businesses actually made up ‘Tech City’.
How many people did they employ, what products or services were these businesses creating, where exactly were businesses in this cluster based and how did workers identify with it?
Ecosystem for the elite?
We found that, to our surprise, the cluster was bigger than previously thought, and very significant as an ecosystem – including lots of small players feeding off each other in a semi-organised network.
But perhaps even more surprising was that these tech entrepreneurs were pretty ‘establishment’ in terms of their background: well educated, middle class, largely male, with access to wealth.
And if you head just a few streets back from the tech cluster’s epicentre in Shoreditch, you’ll come across some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the UK. Tower Hamlets, where Tech City now spills out to, has the highest child poverty rate in England at 42%.
These boroughs were also home to some of the biggest scenes of disorder during the 2011 riots.
Connecting Tech City
After publishing A Tale of Tech City, we realised it’s easy to assume that a buzzing tech sector is accessible and open to all.
Our new research project, Connecting Tech City, looks specifically at whether more local young people could and should be more able to access the tech jobs on their doorstep, and how this might be done.
We know the make-up of people owning, running and working in tech firms in East London in no way reflects the diversity of the area in which it sits, so what’s the real issue here and what does that say about the culture of the sector?
Impact of gentrification
In Hackney rents are soaring and gentrification is making life more expensive for ordinary people.
It’s possible to see a scenario where the local community, divided from the spoils of the tech sector, may take issue against it – as we’ve already seen with the Google bus protests in San Francisco. We want to avoid that, so it’s vital we find ways for everyone to benefit.
Young people, our ‘digital natives’, living in and around Tech City are well-placed and deserve an opportunity to be a part of it.
At the same time, not a day goes by without newspapers dedicating column inches to people from the tech industry worrying about the dearth of tech talent.
As Tech City business experience greater success, it’s getting even harder for them to find and keep the people they need to fill jobs like software engineers and product managers, as well as more front-facing marketing and sales roles.
There is an obvious win-win here. With some co-ordination, local young people can be more engaged with what their local tech sector can offer them, in turn motivating and encouraging them to learn the right skills.
To give just one example, it’s claimed that graduates from the 12-week Makers Academy coding course are walking out into jobs on starting salaries of £35,000.
No shortage of opportunities
We are lucky in this part of East London. There is no shortage of opportunities to learn tech. Some kind of drop-in is happening almost every night of the week – from CityUnrulyversity to Codebar – a new bespoke weekly coding course specifically focused on girls.
Many of the most innovative programmes for kids are emerging from Tech City – like Code Club and Apps for Good, which are now expanding all over the country.
Local talent
The problem is cultural. Local young people need to feel like they could and should belong in the club of Tech City. And tech companies need to ensure they do not become the new establishment by opening up to ideas and ways of working that haven’t been learned at the elite universities.
This is what Connecting Tech City is about – a concerted effort by local political and public bodies to work with tech businesses, schools, colleges, universities, apprenticeship schemes and learning programmes to bring local young people and the Tech City community together.
And how exciting it will be to see what can be achieved in innovation and growth by opening out East London’s tech cluster to be the most socially inclusive in the world.
This week the Connecting Tech City campaign hit its target of £50,000 on Indiegogo.