SOCIAL MOBILITY

Our commitment

The core focus of our initiative partner, _nology, has always been diversity and inclusion within the technology sector. As such, we are committed to investing in positive change, through funding tech training and securing employment for talented, passionate people from underrepresented and underprivileged backgrounds. This is facilitated via our CSR partnerships and community work through _nology. Employment opportunities are secured by the 2000+ organisations we work with. We find talented, underrepresented people, fund their training, and dramatically increase their employability, helping them realise their full potential.

We use targeted campaigns to promote social mobility, and, alongside our existing initiatives, we work closely with _nology, to create space in the tech sector for people from underrepresented backgrounds. We run partnerships with a number of organisations who are also committed to social mobility. They guarantee a role for successful _nology graduates, and we find, and fund the training of, the right talent for the opportunity, ensuring they are equipped with the necessary skills and tech stack for the job.

A few of our current partners...

The Prince's Trust

This UK charity focuses on helping underprivileged and vulnerable young people get into education and employment.vWe’ve partnered with them to provide their talent pool a career path in tech, as well as equipping their young people with in-demand skills and career support through our courses.

Resurgo

Resurgo is a charity that's committed to supporting individuals from underprivileged backgrounds and connecting them with transformational opportunities. They identify people with the aptitude to thrive in a tech environment, and we host webinars and workshops to introduce them to _nology.

The Sutton Trust

The Sutton Trust helps individuals harness their full potential by breaking down societal, educational, and financial barriers. We partner with them to facilitate social mobility for people from underrepresented and underprivileged backgrounds.

Street2Boardroom

Street2Boardroom is an organisation that is endorsed by the Metropolitan Police, and works with ex-offenders to transfer the creative, entrepreneurial traits they learnt on the street into legitimate business skills. We facilitate workshops and webinars that focus on confidence-building and relevant skill sets.

Stepping Up

Focusing on ethnic minorities, this programme encourages progression and upskilling for high-potential individuals from underprivileged backgrounds who wouldn't otherwise have access to these kinds of opportunities. We also partner with them to run a female mentorship scheme.

We fund the training of every individual who joins _nology via one of our CSR partners.

"Thank you for taking so many of our young people forward, so glad that they impressed and so grateful for you giving them these opportunities... It really is a dream opportunity for them." James Woolley, Employer Partnerships Manager at Resurgo

Employment partnerships

Alongside our existing initiatives, we work closely with _nology to create space in the tech sector for people from underrepresented backgrounds. We run partnerships with a number of organisations who are also committed to social mobility. They guarantee a role for successful _nology graduates, and we find, and fund the training of, the right talent for the opportunity, ensuring they are equipped with the necessary skills and tech stack for the job. We offer bespoke, multi-channel advertising campaigns to ensure we reach an audience that these opportunities would otherwise be inaccessible to, fulfilling the needs of the client while promoting diversity and inclusion at every stage.

"**** is a truly refreshing member of the tech team. She brings a different way of thinking and is unafraid to challenge the status quo of an already very innovative business." Mode Banking

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Our commitment

As a sector, technology is hugely lacking in diversity - in 2021, only 19% of tech workers are female, 15% are from ethnically diverse backgrounds, and a third of LGBTQIA+ young people aren't pursuing roles in tech due to worries about discrimination.

The lack of diversity and representation in the tech sector is something we felt a strong need to address. We needed to find a way to attract a diverse workforce to ensure we weren't actively contributing to this lack of representation through our partnership with training and upskilling initiative, _nology. That meant creating a diverse pipeline that would feed into the sector in general.

Clients tell us what roles they need to fill and what skills they're looking for, and we find hardworking, passionate individuals that want to kickstart their career in tech, often with no previous coding experience. Through _nology, we train them in the tech stack needed, and place them in the role with the client once they graduate from our course. This supports clients by delivering highly trained, diverse talent in a skill-short market, and creates a more diverse workforce overall.

Connecting people with opportunities is what we do - regardless of their background. In fact, we're so committed to this initiative, we ensure 10% of the _nology intake is reserved for people from underprivileged and underrepresented backgrounds - and we cover the cost of their training. This not only fills the gap in technology, but fills it with diverse talent and opens doors to a future that may not have been possible otherwise.

_nology students

• 47% female
• 17% LGBTQIA+
• 30% ethnically diverse
• 76% career-changers
• 67% non-STEM backgrounds
• 10% of _nology’s courses are reserved for students introduced to us via _nology’s CSR/ social mobility partners. These places are fully funded by us.

Our approach

Our Marketing team work to ensure our messaging is reaching the right people, proven by the fact that we have a 98% success rate of filling roles within the tech sector with our course graduates. We offer bespoke, multi-channel advertising campaigns to ensure we reach an audience that these opportunities would otherwise be inaccessible to, fulfilling the needs of the client whilst promoting diversity and inclusion at every stage.

We specifically market to underrepresented groups, including women, ethnically diverse individuals, the LGBTQIA+ community, and those from underprivileged backgrounds. By marketing directly to these groups, we are able to dispel myths around working in the tech sector.

Internally, we're committed to diversity. Our HR and Learning and Development teams host regular webinars and workshops focused on D&I topics, such as unconscious bias training. Our wellbeing hub, Opus Well-Rounded, focuses on different key topics each month, all centred around the importance of healthy work and personal lives, and offers practical advice and resources to support our team.