The Black Talent and Leadership Programme is a cross-industry initiative delivered in collaboration with CW (Cambridge Wireless), Homerton Changemakers, University of Cambridge, 10,000 Interns Foundation and Synergy Solutions which is focused on empowering and growing Black talent in STEM.
While the tech industry is rapidly growing, becoming one of the leading sectors in bolstering the UK economy and providing work opportunities across the UK, technology innovation is developing faster than its workforce. Despite the increased demand to find candidates to fill roles, black professionals remain vastly under-represented and underutilised within this sector.
Programme Director, Olu Orugboh, CEO & Founder of Synergy Solutions, said: “When grouped as one category the STEM workforce has a comparable share of Black, Asian and racially minoritised workers to the rest of the UK workforce (12%). However, when the data is looked at in more granularity, Black workers in the UK are still lagging behind at 2% in engineering, technology, science and maths compared to 3% in the rest of the workforce."*
Olu added: "Given that Black talent continues to be under represented in STEM there needs to be a concerted focus to address this imbalance as it will simply not happen by default. This means understanding and addressing both the seen and unseen barriers to accessing opportunities and progressing within the sector.”
Research has found that companies that are diverse and inclusive in their hiring practices are more innovative, better equipped to respond to unexpected challenges, discover and meet the needs of different customer bases, and more productive.
The Black Talent and Leadership in STEM programme is on a mission to address the under-representation of minority talent with a focus on the Black talent skills gap in STEM and in doing so, make it easier for companies to attract, retain, empower and grow this talent within the sector whilst addressing the urgent need for digital skills.
Join us to help build an industry better prepared to meet the ever-changing demands of future generations whilst also building a culture within your own organisation where innovation, productivity and growth can thrive.
Find out how your company can get involved and register your interest today.
Notes to Editors:
Statistics source: APPG on Diversity and Inclusion in STEM, 2021
