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West Midlands Tech Review

On Tuesday 29th March Birmingham Tech published their West Midlands Tech Review and a guest list of 500 people from the tech sector joined them in Birmingham University’s Great Hall for a celebration event.

The West Midlands Tech Review sets out some of the exciting and interesting work taking place in the region. From the West Midlands Digital Roadmap, launched by the West Midlands Combined Authority and to which techUK has added its weight and voice, to 5G Connectivity (the West Midlands is the region ranked highest for 5G coverage in the UK) to a new Proftech hub and the gaming capital of Europe located in Silicon Spa.

And as the report notes, the region tends to shout about its standing enough, but it should:

“It’s not the West Midlands way to make a fuss when we’re doing something spectacularly well, but the secret is out about tech: in 2021 the Office of National Statistics certified the West Midlands as the fastest growing tech scene in the country, and in 2022 CBRE affirmed the judgement when Birmingham leapfrogged from fourth to second in their ranking of UK tech cities.”

As techUK’s CEO, Julian David, set out in his keynote address to the launch attendees, this progress and the championing of the tech sector locally isn’t down to luck. There’s a collaborative approach being adopted that welcomes partnerships and that’s bearing fruit. Julian highlighted work being done by techUK members such as Kagool, West Midlands Growth Company (who co-authored the review), HSBC and Advanced.

However this report isn’t the end of the road, there’s more work to do in terms of digital skills, digital adoption and securing finance and investment in the region as noted in techUK’s Local Digital Capital Index for 2021. And the regions Tech Review notes the importance of these different components, such as in tech skills:

“To date, more than 2,000 local residents have taken part in digital bootcamps – 50% of whom are female and 50% from black and ethnic minority communities – with more than two-thirds of participants moving into good jobs.”

It’s important for the sector, companies, people and communities that we help develop basic digital skills but also a talent pipeline of digital talent. The report highlights just how much is going on in the West Midlands, and there’s more to come.

To download your copy of the report please visit this link: https://birmingham.tech/west-midlands-tech-review-report/

For more information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us now:

Matt Robinson

Matt Robinson

Head of Nations and Regions, techUK

Julia Ofori-Addo

Julia Ofori-Addo

Programme Assistant, BSG, Central Government, Financial Services Team, Comms Infrastructure, techUK

Channel website: http://www.techuk.org/

Original article link: https://www.techuk.org/resource/west-midlands-tech-review.html

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