THE CEO INTERVIEW www.ceotodaymagazine.com 16 business internships, school societies, higher education, and so on, all come with hidden implications about class, gender and race that we don’t even realise aren’t ubiquitous if you come from that world. This year, 48% of our students have been female and 63% have been from ethnic minorities. And that’s just the starting point. 72% are career changers, meaning they aren’t fresh graduates, they come with a wealth of other experience. And 33% don’t have a degree at all. One of my proudest moments was when we placed a young woman from our course into a global investment bank. It was the first time they’d taken someone onto one of their prestigious programmes who didn’t have a degree, and she went on to get an early promotion. These companies are desperate to think outside the box and stop stereotyping, but they also can’t risk compromising on quality and if you take away the standard screening mechanisms that have been used for decades, it’s very hard to make sure you’re getting it right. That’s where we can really help people. Our people are absolute top quality. We just don’t have to define “quality” by whether they could afford to go to university or abandon care duties, as an example. Another example is an incredible woman who’s got four kids and has had a long career break. She didn’t have a degree and didn’t know where to begin in trying to get back into the workforce. Not only is she one of the technically strongest people we’ve had on the course – she’s now got a prestigious placement at a large consultancy that would traditionally hire graduates with tech experience. We are giving people a route into a career that can change the course of their, and their family’s lives. And the confidence and support to flourish in potentially intimidating corporate environments. We’ve just signed a really exciting partnership with The Prince’s Trust to take on students who are part of their charitable communities. From October, we will be running dedicated courses for Prince’s Trust alumni with extra pastoral support and additional training around business skills to ensure they get the best experience and the best chance of success. What is your ultimate goal for _nology? We’ve only been going a couple of years, but we are really proud to say that we’ve added over 600 people into the tech community who probably wouldn’t have been there otherwise. People always talk about sustainability. Our aim is to become “talent neutral” as a business. We currently place over 4,000 people a year into roles in these great sectors. My ultimate aim is to bring as many new people into the field as we are placing senior people. I want to try and make the tech landscape represent the community it serves in fair proportions. It’s not about convincing more girls they must take STEM and move towards the perceived “tech profile”. It’s about widening the tech profile to include all types of people. Although having said that, since COVID and becoming a mum, I basically only ever wear Converse now too.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk3Mzkz