Who we are
DiversITy-talent is a Community Impact Company (CIC) set up to inspire young people and other untapped, underrepresented talent pools from diverse backgrounds into business and technology careers. The British Computer Society – BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT), CIONET and The ESG Institute are our founding partners. IIRIS is our sponsoring partner.
DiversITy-talent is championing the notion of a truly diverse, digitally competent talent pool, through our flagship Awards schemes, work-ready training programmes, community mentoring, re-skilling development and government-level awareness raising activities.
The ‘DiversITy-talent Awards’
A national competition open to all schools, youth groups, disadvantaged teenagers, young adults and minority groups representing untapped talent pools
The competition’s aim: To solve society or community challenges through applying modern business skills, digital ways of working, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and appropriate technology to find winning, practical solutions that can be implemented successfully.
Our DiverITy-talent programmes are by their very nature diverse, equitable and inclusive. As such, and because gender diversity remains the number one ‘big win’ in inclusivity terms, we require that girls be 50% of any team as a starting point. It is then up to the schools and groups involved to build around other appropriate diversity lenses, so the team is representative of the community, and is a champion for the benefits of how a broad mix of talent can excel. Just like in business.
Through team selection, we are, therefore, promoting business skills and technology know-how to a more diverse range of young people: including ethnic minorities, spiritual denominations, neurodiverse talent, gender-diverse groups, people with differing abilities and special needs. We will include those who may have dropped out of the education system, for whatever reason, and who are looking for another chance to learn and grow, to better prepare them for the world of work.
We will provide guidance and ongoing help through the whole process to all groups entering into our competition, as part of the DiversITy-talent Awards.
Two reasons to get involved:
Partnership Options:
We have four partnership options for you to get actively involved with DiversITy-talent: Partner, Partner Plus, Platinum Partner, Diamond Partner
Why is this so important?
By supporting our DiversITy-talent Awards, mentoring, work-ready programmes, and awareness-raising activities, businesses have a unique opportunity to engage with young future talent and a diverse untapped talent pool. Our programme participants will be more aware and ready for the demands of a career in modern, technology-fuelled business, and the new digital ways of working that are still being adopted in the workplace.
We have already started building for the future
Two schools piloted the DiversITy-talent Awards at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 early in 2023. The initial return on experience from the pilots was highly encouraging. When we started, none of the children involved were aware of what a career in modern, digital-era business and technology looked like. Many of the pupils involved thought technology careers involved purely coding; until we revealed the many and varied opportunities now available in this fast-paced space.
By the end of the pilot programme each pupil, and encouragingly all of the girls, agreed that the experience opened their eyes to the breadth of careers in modern, digital-era business and technology; and that they clearly see the potential for more exciting roles in these areas – for everyone. To the extent that 100% of the pupils taking part confirmed they would now definitely consider technology and digital business related careers.
Following the success of our pilot programmes, the DiversITy-talent Awards will formally launch at the start of the 2023-24 academic year, with a target to reach at least 50 schools in our first full year of launch.
We are also in the process of working with young adults aged 15-19 years, and other youth groups, in encouraging them to take part in our awards.
In parallel, we are opening up our work-ready, power skills programmes for them to sign up to, accelerating learning potential for everyone involved.
This helps DiversITy-talent to further build the pipeline of more skilled, workplace-ready talent for the private and public sectors, as we head to the 2030s.
Testimonials
“Through the Design thinking tech challenge I have seen my students significantly improve skills in creativity, teamwork, collaboration and presenting skills. I can see confidence has grown and working in a team has enhanced their individual listening and empathy skills as they take on each other’s perspectives.”
This programme has first-hand changed what the children think about a career in business and technology and I know they all thought technology was only about coding but they have seen it is so much more.
The diversITy talent tech challenge has a lot of links to school curriculum. I feel that any teacher from any subject could be supporting the students with this as there are a lot of transferable skills and key skills in terms of digital ways of working that can be adopted. I think the materials provided by diversITy talent are really structured and easy for any teacher to follow and support in the competition taking part next year.
The children gained a vast amount of skills such as being creative, problem solving, teamwork and having to carry out independent research and interviewing skills that they just wouldn’t normally do. I have seen a shift in mindset, in particular a number of diverse children are taking ICT as an outcome of this course and they are starting to really think about careers in business and technology, as they were not aware of what is available before this programme.
Redoaks Primary School,
Year 6 Students taking part in the
DiversITy-talent Awards challenge pilot.
I found the challenge fun, interesting and I learnt a lot. I enjoyed the testing of our ideas, planning, collaboration and using data. My perception of a career in tech was that it was boring…However, working on this challenge, I realised a career in tech means you have a bright future, it’s fun and collaborative.
I feel technology is so important in our everyday lives and whilst I am excited that it is about coding as I am very creative I now realise it is so much more and we can actually use technology to change lives.
When I first started the design thinking tech challenge whilst I understood how important a career in technology my perception was that it was dull, boring and only about coding. However, working through this course it’s been so much fun, I can make a difference and being treated like business colleagues gave me a real feeling of what it would be like to work in business and technology and so I would now definitely be considering it.
Bradon Forest Secondary School,
Year 9 Students taking part in the
DiversITy-talent Awards challenge pilot.
I found it super interesting, learnt many new skills especially problem solving and being able to use technology to fix societal issues like food wastage in schools.
I really found it fun, and it’s a different and new way to think about how to solve issues in business. It has definitely changed my view about a career as I realised it’s about not just jumping to a solution but actually we need to spend time to understand the problem first and only then can you really find a solution.
I would consider a career in business and technology as this course has helped me understand that it’s a lot more than just coding, that is one aspect but it’s about teamwork, collaboration, gathering data and driving insights to help find solutions, problem solving and testing ideas to find the best solution. It was a lot of fun and I realised that technology is everywhere and how important it is.
