Transferring to tech

Alice Howis from East London was doing a creative course when she decided to do a bootcamp in data science. Despite having no background in IT, she took that first step into the data industry and, with support from course provider HyperionDev on CV and interview preparation, she secured a job as a junior data analyst through LinkedIn.

Alice is just one of HyperionDev’s success stories. The company, set up by South African student Riaz Moola, has branched outside of southern Africa and is now working in the UK in partnership with UK universities, including Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh. It aims to  build and deliver better technical education for anyone who wants to learn digital literacy and programming skills. 

A lot of its focus is on underrepresented groups in tech, including women.

A recent report by McKinsey finds that, in the UK, women represent only 24.5% of tech positions. Considering that the global tech industry anticipates structural growth of 69 million jobs by 2027, the need to harness the talents of women in this sector has never been more urgent, says HyperionDev.

Closing the skills gap

HyperionDev says 88% of its graduates found a new tech job and got employed within six months of graduating, with graduates seeing a median salary increase of 178% after completing the bootcamps. Graduates work in companies ranging from Google, Amazon, Vodacom and Accenture to start-ups.

Between the ages of 25 and 54, some 36% of graduates identify as female, with the most popular bootcamps being software engineering and data science.

“To close the skills gap in the tech industry, creating educational opportunities, providing financial assistance and fostering inclusivity is essential,” says  Simone Botes, head of Educational Operations at HyperionDev. 

She says public and private entities need to work together to remove obstacles to ensure women enter the tech sector and excel in it. She adds that educational curricula should also integrate tech-focused programmes from an early age to bring about change. Initiatives like coding boot camps, tech clubs and scholarship programmes targeting young girls can build an early interest and tech capability, she says.

HyperionDev courses cover everything from software engineering to data science and cybersecurity. It says you can start as a beginner and be job ready in just three [full time] to six months [part time]. You can pay upfront, monthly or through a loan. Imperial College’s web development bootcamp, for instance, costs £7,495 upfront, £635 a month or £780 a month through a loan from the Student Loan Company. That includes employment support and mentoring.

HyperionDev is one of a number of initiatives that aim to make learning IT skills more accessible. There are many initiatives aimed at underrepresented groups in the UK, including Code First Girls, which offers free online coding courses, and Codebar, which is holding a free webinar today for workingmums.co.uk Careers Week to explain what it offers. Its goal is to make technology and coding more accessible to minority groups by offering one-to-one coaching and cohort support for those doing coding courses. The webinar will be live at 10am, but will be posted on the Careers Week site afterwards.

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