London’s ever-expanding tech cluster has a huge amount to offer, but a London think tank believes young people need better ways to connect to them.
Connecting Tech City, a new online platform that hopes to bring together tech firms that need talent with young people who want to learn, is in its last week of a crowdfunding campaign.
Think tank Centre for London who run the campaign have so far raised 71% (or just over £35k) of their £50k target.
Through the platform, young people can search opportunities, learning providers can add their programmes, and tech firms can commit their time to support as mentors, teachers or through work schemes.
Finding the right talent
In 2012 the think tank published A Tale of Tech City, a look into the number of firms in Tech City. It questioned what entrepreneurs wanted to help them grow.
Jess Tyrell of Centre for London says that the one thing companies were having difficulty with was finding the right talent:
They were saying more infrastructure, less hype.So we looked from there as to how we might bring the gap between the skills shortage in Tech City and the local boroughs, who experience youth unemployment as high as 40% in some areas.
Connecting Tech City was born.
The crowdfunding route
Tyrell says that the campaign not just about the money, its about the community coming together to collaborate. That’s why they chose the crowdfunding route.
This project is a big different from our usual work. We wanted to make something happen, and crowd funding is a great way to get stakeholders to buy in.
Once people have committed money, they tend to feel more ownership. This is what we have wanted to create.
The campaign closes on June 16th. It already has over 100 backers but Tyrell says they still need everyone to do what they can to chip in to help.
You can contribute to the campaign here.
Connecting Tech City from Jess Tyrrell on Vimeo.