A talent shortage is “inhibiting” London growth and the city’s position as a global technology hub, according to independent private sector group Tech London Advocates.
A survey of the group’s members shows 43 per cent fear that a shortage of talent is threatening London technology’s continued growth.
Talent trends
Tech London Advocates founder Russ Shaw says encouraging young people to study STEM subjects and initiatives to encourage digital skills are important steps in the right direction, but bigger measures are needed.
We are calling on the government to review education and immigration legislation to fuel the long term growth of London’s most vibrant industry.
The study is released ahead of the first anniversary summit of Tech London Advocates, London: Capital Gains.
Speakers such as Kit Malthouse, deputy London mayor for business and enterprise, Gerard Grech, CEO of Tech City UK and Sherry Coutu, angel investor, will discuss key issues facing London’s technology sector.
Looking abroad
Sarah Wood, founder of Unruly, said the best teams are diverse teams, and welcomed initiatives like the introduction of the Exceptional Talent Visa, a new visa route for tech talent.
In addition to nurturing homegrown talent, the Government needs to do more to reduce the cost, complexity and time taken to push through visa applications.
Songkick CTO Dan Crow agreed that a more fluid visa system is needed.
There is a deep pool of highly experienced people in Silicon Valley.
We’ve managed to tempt a few of them to London, but we’ve also lost some very promising potential employees because it is so hard for Americans to get work visas for the UK.
Foreign tongues
Tech London Advocates identified a selection of fast growing businesses and asked them about the challenges they faced around immigration and talent.
A look at the number of languages present shows the level of international talent supporting Britain’s tech scene.
But the number of vacancies – seven on average at any one time – also speaks for itself.
Business |
No. of languages |
No. of vacancies |
| DueDil | 13 | 12-15 |
| Unruly | 40 | 20 |
| SwiftKey | 33 | 10 |
| Huddle | 14 | 6 |
| Songkick | 5 | 5 |
| Quill | 7 | 9 |
| Shopa | 9 | 10 |
| Growth Intelligence | 4 | 1 |
| Ometria | 10 | 5 |
| PleaseCycle | 3 | 4 |