Tech talent that is agile and ready to change society are trained at Makers Academy as many industries are experiencing a huge gap in supply and demand for engineers who can work in an agile way. The organisation looks at welcoming over 1,500 technologists into the world, examines the reasons behind the loss of female talent and displays an impressive love of craft beer.

What happens at Makers Academy – how to you differentiate yourselves from other training courses?

Our diverse and independent software engineers will accelerate faster than any other source of tech talent. We help companies support their agile transformation from the ground up.

At Makers we’re creating a new generation of tech talent who are ready to build the change in society and thrive in the new world of work.

What type of people come to Makers Academy?

We have trained over 1,500 people to become junior software developers and connected them with top technology companies. Our applicants come from a range of backgrounds including banking, design, marketing, teaching, health and more. Whilst no applicant is the same, they possess a range of characteristics that propel them forward on their coding journey. Makers are highly motivated to succeed, great problem solvers and logical thinkers. They love mastering technology and are driven to build world changing products that enrich lives.

What are the skills most in demand in the industry?

We see and hear about a huge demand for a wide variety of skills across the industry. Given the demand for organisations to ‘transform,’ we see a great demand for skills in the XP and software craft space, as well as the ability to work in test-driven development (TDD). There seems to be a huge gap in supply and demand for engineers who can work in an agile way.

Why do you think tech – at times – can seem very male dominated?

Tech is a very male dominated industry – women represent just 19% of the digital tech workforce in the UK, as opposed to 49% across all jobs, according to a 2018 Tech Nation Report. The first thing to acknowledge is the pipeline issue, which could be traced to a lack of female role models, and broader societal attitudes toward women in tech, which can make the industry seem unappealing to many young women. However, we linked up with Code First:Girls to produce a thought piece on why it’s more than just a pipeline issue. In summary, research by Kieran Snyder (who interviewed 716 women who left the technology industry after an average tenure of seven years), found that almost all of them said they liked the work itself but most were unhappy with the work environment.

We will have many varieties of craft beer on offer at the Festival – including one developed by artificial intelligence – what is your drink of choice?

We love Gamma Ray by BeaverTown and another favourite is Organic Chocolate Stout from Sam Smith’s. We also organise monthly whiskey tastings. Our staff includes a former beer festival organiser and a natural wine importer.

You may have heard about our ongoing  FinTECHTalents Spotify Playlist – What would you like to add?  

We’d love to add these three songs to the playlist:

• Love is everywhere – Village of the Pharaohs
• Ain’t no stopping us now (unreleased version) – nuphonic
• As – Stevie Wonder