Fat Beehive has teamed up with Beyond Recovery and Breakthrough to encourage more members of the black community to consider a career in tech.

Hosted at the Fat Beehive offices in Borough, attendees will have the chance to hear from and ask questions of four guest speakers who changed their careers by learning to code or by developing tech skills.

The event is free to attend and welcomes anyone who would like to learn more about a career in tech – no prior experience or tech knowledge needed.

We’re also offering the opportunity to win a host of free introductory coding workshops as well as one Code4000 coding scholarship.

Agenda

• 6:00pm – Doors open
• 6:30pm – Welcome – Mark Watson, Chief Executive, Fat Beehive
• 6:45pm – Panel speakers, Ahmed, Amanul, Chantal and Daniel
• 7:15pm – Questions to panellists from floor
• 8:00pm – Next steps (coding workshops etc) – Breakthrough
• 8:15pm – Guest speaker: Lord Hastings
• 8:30pm – Food and drinks

Fat Beehive, Beyond Recovery and Breakthrough representatives will be on hand to answer questions.

The issue

The tech industry is facing both a skills and diversity crisis with employers finding it difficult to recruit. Within this, black people are especially underrepresented in tech. A report by the Greater London Authority in 2020, “Voices of the Underrepresented,” found that while young Black Londoners make up 18% of London’s population, they comprise only 5% of the capital’s technology workforce, a sector is estimated to be worth £56 billion to the economy.

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London believes “it is not right that talented and ambitious black Londoners are not being given the opportunity to prosper in the capital’s tech sector”. While Ashley Ainsley, co-founder of non-profit organisation Colorintech states that the barriers facing young black people in the workforce have been ignored for too long.

We’ll be hearing from our speakers to understand their experiences and how we can support more black people to get jobs in this thriving sector.