Technology Talent & Skills Snapshot 2021 – SW

Here, a Technology Sector Talent and Skills Overview, specifically for the South West, based on ADLIB internal data and knowledge.

We’re publishing Technology, Data, Engineering, Science, Sustainability, eCommerce, Marketing and Design sector-specific Talent & Skills Snapshots over the next few weeks, to share and provide sector knowledge specific to the Bristol and Bath regions.

Sector overview

The Bristol region hosts more than 10,000 technology companies and an internationally renowned and mature tech ecosystem. Tech growth is being driven by emerging clusters in AI, robotics, fintech, VR, healthtech, greentech and creative tech projects, which are springing out of the city’s many incubators and university research projects. Scale-ups have access to a wide variety of growth capital sources in the South West including angel groups and venture capital trusts. The region’s start-up and creative scene is well documented as one of the most progressive, innovative and exciting in the world.

Talent overview

Bristol’s talent market continues to flourish thanks to the concentration of high-quality education establishments, an ever-growing intake of relocators seeking a better quality of life and a vast number of tech meetup communities. With the move towards greater remote working, the pool of talent is deepening and the area benefits from a vast contractor network. Local developer academies and initiatives that bring cross-trainers and juniors through are gathering pace to support demand.

Skills in demand

AI and automation have been identified as two top trends in the region. There continues to be a huge demand for expertise within Cloud/DevOps (AWS, Azure, GCP), web and software development (React, Node, PHP, Python, Ruby, Scala/Clojure, Java, .Net), QA/Test, Cyber Security and more. Increasingly there is more demand for rounded technical staff with strong client-facing, stakeholder management and leadership/mentoring skills than before.