Scots tech firms preparing to host and upskill young interns via latest CodeClan Youth Academy intake

A collective of Scottish companies and universities will be taking on interns from a partnership aimed at giving young people real-world experience of how a technology-driven business operates.

The initiative is a tie-up between digital skills academy CodeClan and investment management group Baillie Gifford that was announced in March.

The CodeClan Youth Academy says the 14 interns will take up their paid placements at FreeAgent, Stellar Omada, Heriot-Watt’s Robotarium, DirectID, Inoapps, Cademy, and Lane Media, in addition to CodeClan and Baillie Gifford, following a four-week coding bootcamp at the digital skills academy, which earlier this year signed up three more corporate partners including Skyscanner.

CodeClan chief executive Melinda Matthews-Clarkson said: “As Mark Logan outlined last week at Turing Fest, education is one of the key pillars required if Scotland’s tech community is to reach a tipping point and establish itself as a truly leading technology hub. CodeClan Youth Academy demonstrates that, with more buy-in from across the Scottish business scene, we can help to address this pressing concern.”

Yvonne Robertson, chief of information systems staff at Baillie Gifford, said: “We have been really encouraged to see the CodeClan Youth Academy get off the ground. We hope it can be the first of many to come, and to echo Melinda, the success of the initiative will rely on even more companies coming forward to support the academy.”

The venture, whose second cohort begins in October, is aimed at those aged 16 to 21, giving them programming skills required in an industry environment, with its graduates able to carry out tasks equivalent to the role of a junior front-end developer. It added that almost two-thirds of organisations in Scotland are struggling to find people with business-critical digital skills.

Dermot Murray, vice president of technology at IT firm Inoapps, said: “[We believe] investing in the next generation of digital talent is going to be critical to our future growth and success.

The CodeClan-Baillie Gifford tie-up aims to give young people real-world experience of how a technology-driven business operates. Picture: contributed.

"The digital skills crisis means that it is proving ever more difficult to source future talent, and it is therefore vital that we invest and grow our own talent through programmes such as this. Inoapps has had a long and successful partnership with CodeClan, having recruited over 30 graduates from their Digital Skills bootcamp into a wide variety of digital roles, and we welcome this new initiative.”