What Thames Valley tech needs to do to retain its position

Tech companies  must pull together to create a Thames Valley-wide momentum if the region is to retain its position as the top technology hub outside of London.

That is the message from Thames Valley Tech, created by the Thames Valley Forum, who will this month launch Stream, a mentoring programme taking six start ups through a process that will equip them with the knowledge needed to scale their enterprises.

Thames Valley Tech was formed in April last year with the aim of bringing tech companies together to find solutions to problems and in turn help the tech sector grow.

It counts large tech employers such as Westcoast, Softcat and Redwood Technologies amongst its community and is working on addressing a number of tech challenges including skills shortages, scaling issues and how to foster the growth of sector hubs.

Chair of Thames Valley Tech, Adam Hale, who built up cloud provider Fairsail before it was acquired by Sage Group, said the region had started to become "overlooked".

"If you go back 30 years, this region was where  the big global technology companies came to first from overseas, he added.

"Microsoft and Oracle set up their first European operations outside North America in the Thames Valley.

"Since that incredible start, London has gone on to become a tech hub while the Thames Valley has become slightly overlooked as a region.

"We are looking to build the region's profile back up again and tell the story of where it is at and where it is going."

ABOUT STREAM

Stream is a free-to-enter programme that will see six companies take part in the first 'Flotilla', note the water-based language to highlight the region's proximity to the River Thames, and will run for six weeks across May and June.

Sessions during the six weeks feature sessions by a range of Thames Valley-based companies including NatWest, EY and legal firm Blake Morgan.

The programme will end with a demo pitch session in front of investors and the Thames Valley tech community in Reading.

Ian Binns, director of Thames Valley Forum, said:  "We realised there was a need to be a little bit interventionist to get the region known for innovation and entrepreneurship.

"We were championing the work that the other organisations are doing but there seemed to be a gap.

"We wanted to do something more practical with this rather than just getting  people together.

"This is an opportunity to create and cultivate something that could really make a difference."

SKILLS CRISIS

The Thames Valley, like all other regions around the globe, is struggling with a tech skills crisis that is hampering growth.

The demand for tech talent is shown by the fact that the role of software developer is now one of the top three job vacancies in the UK.

Adam, who is also chair of the ScaleUp Institute, said: "We've got such a skills crisis. I have been in technology for a long time and I have never seen the skills crisis as bad as it is now.

"Everything is being digitised very fast and every organisation is becoming a technology company therefore the requirement for these skills is off the charts.

"There are not enough people and one of the things we want to do is increase the number of people that have these real skills."

Testing problems like the chronic shortage of skilled tech workers requires new thinking and Adam points to the work being carried out by the South Central Institute of Technology in Milton Keynes as a prime example of innovation in the education space.

He said: "If it is hard for a great Scale Up to hire a coder then imagine how hard it is for a school to hire a great computing teacher.

"What we need is a complete reinvention of the  model and that's why I think the Institute of Technology is so good .

"They've got some of our partners who have written and delivered computing courses for them which is a much more agile partnership between business and education.

"Westcoast has designed and developed a course with them and their people will be delivering it and teaching the young people going through it.

"That is an incredibly innovative and scalable model of education."

SCALEUPS

Scale Ups play a pivotal role in the UK economy and are responsible for half of the GDP generated by Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs).

A Scale Up company, of which there are around 30,000 in the UK,  is defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as a company of more than ten people and growing at a rate of 20 per cent a year consistently.

Adam said: "Thames Valley Tech is focused on helping companies in the region grow."We will work towards improving access to people and skills at junior and senior level, bring people together with the aim of forming clusters and hubs and let firms know how they can access capital."

For details on how to become involved in Thames Valley Tech and the Stream programme as a mentor or as a company email Ian Binns ian@thamesvalleyforum.org.