Research conducted by Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Newcastle based Northcoders – one of the UK’s premier coding bootcamp providers – has shown that 75% of businesses in England are unaware of potential funding that could directly help them to either digitally upskill or cross-skill existing and new employees.
Northcoders approached over 1300 companies operating in the tech, education, publishing, finance, environmental, transport and marketing sectors to ask them if they knew that they can now leverage government-backed support which offers up to 90% funding for SMEs and 70% for corporates.
The findings show that thousands of firms across England are potentially missing out on the chance to further scale up their operations by not nurturing potentially diverse tech talent or empowering their teams to develop core digital skills and knowledge.
Using funding from the Department for Education’s ‘Skills for Life/ Skills Bootcamp Programme’ – and from as little as £657 per person – eligible firms can either enrol team members on one of Northcoders’ 13-week long Skills Bootcamps for Businesses that cover software development, data engineering, or cloud engineering; or they can opt for a bespoke funded academy that delivers a customised curriculum based around specific needs, as well as swift integration and foundation learning that introduces participants to an initial technology stack, enabling quick and independent acquisition of subsequent technologies. Organisations that have previously partnered with Northcoders and have staged a bespoke (non-funded) academy include KPMG and NHS Digital.
There is clear eligibility criteria around how the ‘Skills for Life/ Skills Bootcamp Programme’ funding can be accessed: participants must be aged 19 or older on 31st August 2023; have the right to work in the UK; meet the necessary residency requirements; live in England; and must either be looking to secure an offer of a new role with their existing employer, or develop their existing role with additional responsibilities that directly utilise the new skills acquired through a funded academy.
Amul Batra – Co-Founder and Chief Partnerships Officer at Northcoders – said: “We know that companies right across England are facing challenging times, but for many long-term success will be secured by investing in their own peoples’ digital skills. Game-changing funding such as this can make all the difference and I would simply encourage firms to explore their options and research whether it might work for them.”
