How tackling the digital skills gap will supercharge Scottish tech – Karen Meechan, CEO, ScotlandIS

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5 • 6 Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Karen Meechan, CEO of ScotlandIS, discusses how Scotland’s tech industry, made mostly of small and medium-sized enterprises, is indeed thriving but is struggling to grow as the supply of digital talent is not meeting demands.

Meechan has worked with ScotlandIS – an industry body supporting the nation’s tech sector – for 20 years. Meechan explains how bodies like ScotlandIS are working towards plugging the digital skills gap but need more support from the government at a local and UK-wide level. ScotlandIS was formed in 1999 through a merger of various industry groups including the Scottish Software Federation. The organisation manages various sector clusters in the country, with its member enterprises employing over 60,000 people.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Our challenge is the curriculum that's there at first and second year, albeit it's just a taster,
0:11.0	is not enough for our young people to get excited about a potential career doing that all day
0:17.0	because working with Microsoft Office and WordArt does not a graphic designer make.
0:23.6	Do I want another 10 unicorns? That would be wonderful. I would love that.
0:32.6	But actually, what I think would be most beneficial for Scotland's economy is if we grew our £1 million
0:40.3	£1 businesses to £5 to £5 to £10, £10 to £50.
0:44.3	Certainly for Scotland we absolutely, as a nation I think, we don't promote ourselves quite like they do in the US.
1:00.9	From the first time founders to the funds that back them, innovation needs different.
1:06.7	Our episode partner, HSBC Innovation Banking, is proud to accelerate growth for tech and life science
1:13.1	businesses, creating meaningful connections and opening up a world of opportunity for entrepreneurs
1:18.6	and investors alike. Discover more at www.h.hsbc Innovationbanking.com slash EN-GB. Hello and welcome to the U.C. InnovationBanking.com slash E.N. dash G.B. Hello and welcome to the UKTN podcast, a weekly
1:33.5	chat with the movers and shakers of the UK tech industry and the destination for all things UK tech
1:39.3	related. I am your host, Jane Wakefield, and joining me this week is Karen Meekon, the CEO of Scotland
1:46.0	IS, a membership organisation for Scotland's digital technology industry.
1:51.0	It's an interesting name, Scotland IS.
1:53.2	What's that all about to start with?
1:56.6	So Scotland is was born out of a merger back in 1999 of the Scottish Software Federation
2:03.9	and a couple of other organisations.
2:06.9	So the story goes, so I've only been with the organisation for 20 of its 25 years.
2:13.5	A newbie.
2:14.4	Just a newbie, just a child.
2:17.0	But the story goes that the Scotland is was almost like a play on word.
	...

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