GTI’s most recent Breakfast News, held during London Tech Week, focused on AI and related careers for graduates. The keynote was delivered by Priya Lakhani OBE, Founder and CEO of CENTURY Tech, an artificial intelligence education technology company that develops AI-powered learning tools for schools, colleges, universities and employers across the world.
Priya explained why AI is critical in the education skills and training sectors and why the UK economy needs graduate roles in AI and machine learning.
There have long been concerns about the deficit of candidates for AI, data science and technology roles in the UK, and particular concerns about the lack of females studying STEM related degrees. Data from Ofqual reveals that the gender tech gap starts as young as 16. 55% of A-level students are female but only 45% of STEM A-level certificates are awarded to females. And 85% of A-level computing science students are male. Meanwhile HESA data shows that whilst 58% of university students are female, only 18% of computer science students are female. This gender gap is predicted to get bigger.
To address these issues, the Office for Students (OfS), in partnership with the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Office for Artificial Intelligence (OAI), has this week announced funding for up to 2,000 additional scholarships for students studying AI and data science postgraduate conversion courses - aimed at women, black students, disabled students and those from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds. GTI has been appointed as the employer engagement partner to help broaden access to AI and data science postgraduate study.
Meanwhile, new graduate research, carried out by GTI’s market research consultancy, Cibyl, reveals the technology sector is now the most popular employment sector amongst students and recent graduates. In the survey of 65,000 students from over 160 UK universities, 28% of students cited technology as their sector of choice. These findings are supported by the fact that over 88,000 students registered on targetjobs want to work in a tech or science related career, making this the most popular career choice on the platform.
So, whilst there is still work to do to the plug the technology skills gap in the UK, GTI believes the sector has reason to feel positive about the future.
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Employers and higher education providers can find out more about the AI scholarship scheme here: Supporting the Future of AI and Data Science | Group GTI
targetjobs runs ‘IT’s not just for the boys’ employability insight events each Autumn. Find out how to get involved here: Graduate career events | targetjobs.
Ocado will sponsor a new AI award at the 2023 targetjobs Undergraduate of the Year Awards. Launch details to follow later in the year. Undergraduate of the year |
