Despite the pandemic, Northcoders – the Manchester based software development training and solutions provider – has seen the number of hiring partners it works with across the North increase by 63% since September 2020.
Northcoders believes this demonstrates that the demand for digital skills is growing month on month and follows recent reports from The Learning & Work Institute that the UK is heading towards a “catastrophic” digital skills shortage “disaster” thanks to a 40% drop in young people taking IT subjects at GCSE since 2015.
The new hiring partners include Covea, Car Finance 247, CG Hero, The Insights People and Taptrip who join the likes of On The Beach, Footasylum, Thoughtworks and thinkmoney. The hiring partner programme – which spans 25 industries from financial services, healthcare, and media to automotive and construction – enables companies to hire skilled and job-ready developers from its courses without fees.
Since its inaugural course in 2015, Northcoders has helped over 750 people switch careers into tech, with average starting salaries of around £25,500. Whilst 95% of Northcoders secure a software engineering role after graduation. Northcoders’ main campus is at Manchester Technology Centre and it has a base at Platform in Leeds.
Since the start of 2021, the company has also seen an upturn in enquiries for its bootcamps, UpSkill and ReSkill programmes as more and more people look to switch careers and businesses invest in their employees via training and apprenticeships to ensure they are best positioned for a strong post-pandemic recovery.
Amul Batra – chief partnerships officer at Northcoders – said: “The last year has tested everyone. It has made individuals question what they want out of their careers and businesses revaluate what skills they need to thrive. This is a significant rise in our hiring partner programme and shows that firms in many sectors are ready to invest in their tech capabilities as they know they will be vital to our economic recovery following the pandemic.”
Over the past two years, it has been selected as one of the country’s brightest tech stars in Creative England’s CE50 list and was named Business of the Year at the 15th Annual Chamber Business Awards. It has also launched scholarship schemes and a deferred payment programme aimed at women and gender minorities, as well as those who identify as BAME or LGBTQ+, have a disability or have had limited access to education, to help address diversity in tech. The firm also relocated its Manchester campus to a new 10,000 sq. ft space at Manchester Technology Centre on Oxford Road in early 2020.
