Inspiring Future Tech Talent at Tecman

We believe that our success lies in the strength of our team – the strength of Team Tecman. But with the UK currently facing a skills gap in the technology industry, and Tecman being a leading Microsoft Partner, we are committed to inspiring the next generation of innovators and helping bring more diversity to the tech industry and fill that skills gap.

So when it comes to recruitment, we know we need to look further than those already in the world of Microsoft Dynamics 365. We’re committed to not only finding skilled professionals and ensuring we retain this talent by building an inclusive and empowering work environment, but we’re passionate about inspiring the next generation.

We’ve been working towards this goal for a few years now, but we’ve recently stepped it up a notch by introducing our Inspiring Future Tech Talent initiative. We’re committed to building a talented and diverse team for today as well as for tomorrow.

Home-Grown Talent: Tecman’s Academy Programme

Our Academy programme is going into its 9th year and has come a long way since it started back in 2013. Our last Academy intake in 2022, saw us take on 15 Academy Consultants and five Academy Developers looking to start their Microsoft Dynamics 365 journey. They’re now fully settled into their roles in various departments and are already making big differences to our customers. We couldn’t be prouder of our home-grown talent and our brilliant staff members who help make the Academy Programme possible. It’s no small task getting everyone up to speed and settled into their new teams and it requires a lot of resource, but it’s so worth it to bring more people into the world of Dynamics 365.

Applications are now open for our 2024 Academy Programme and we have two pathways available (both developer and business-focused) with multiple places available. If you’re looking for a career you can grow professionally in, the business tech industry offers some incredible benefits and Tecman is here to get you started with the training and support you need.

New for 2023: Tecman’s Apprenticeship Pathway

However, this year we were excited to introduce two new apprentices to the Tecman team! This is something that has been in the works for some time but has only now been possible thanks to our Managing Director, James Crowter.

James has been fighting to get the Digital Support Technician apprenticeship standards changed, allowing more companies, like Tecman, to bring apprentices into the business and grow future talent. Previously, Tecman (and many other companies) didn’t meet the Institute of Apprenticeships standards which prevented us from getting involved and providing apprenticeships. Our very own Academy Programme has helped fill this gap but we are eager to do more to bring more people into the Microsoft Dynamics world, and offering several ways of doing that is important to us.

So after a lot of meeting emails and perseverance, James has made incredible progress in ensuring young people have an alternative route into an industry that’s growing incredibly fast.

Not just growing our workforce, but retaining our staff as well – An official Great Place to Work

But encouraging more people into the industry and welcoming them into a career at Tecman would have little impact if they didn’t choose to stay.

This is why we strive to build an excellent workplace where our team can feel happy, included and heard. Our people are everything, they’re the backbone of Tecman and without incredible staff, our business wouldn’t be what it is.

We work with Great Place to Work to help us continually improve as an employer. The Great Place to Work certification process means our employees have to opportunity to share their thoughts on working at Tecman and what can be improved all while staying anonymous. Whilst we always welcome feedback from our team, aiming to provide a safe space to do this, the questionnaire completed in the process allows for completely honest feedback.

And we’re proud to say it’s always positive. However, the comments left about what could be improved are always listened to. Anything that can be actioned will be, and anything that’s not possible will always be explained why and other options will be explored. We never simply ignore suggestions or say they aren’t possible to implement without a good reason.

It's this that’s helped us build a great place to work. Our team show us where we can improve, they help us create a welcoming, positive work environment and we couldn’t be prouder. It’s not enough for our leadership team to guess what will make our staff happy and keep them here with Team Tecman. We’re people-focused, and that’s what makes us provide an excellent employee experience – it’s all lead by our fantastic team, at all levels of the business.

But it’s not just creating a great working environment that keeps our retention rates high, it’s allowing our team to grow their careers with us. In fact, we’ve internally promoted 55% of our team as of the end of September 2023!

We’ve once again been named a UK Best Workplace, a UK Best Workplace for Wellbeing, and a UK Best Workplace for Women by Great Place to Work for 2023 and we aim to continue to be a UK Best Workplace for years to come.

Inspiring Future Tech Leaders

So we’re onboarding and training staff new to the Microsoft Dynamics world and making sure our staff retention rates stay high, but how do we encourage the next generation to get into tech? It’s a growing industry and according to a study by NatWest Group, by 2025 the UK’s tech market is predicted to be six times larger than it is today and will be worth £30 billion, but it’s facing a huge skills gap. Plus, according to the study, there will only be one qualified woman for every 115 new roles by 2025.

We knew we needed to do something about this.

We can sit and grumble about the lack of women in tech and the lack of interest from girls to consider tech roles, but nothing will change without action.

That’s why in October of this year we held our first Girls in Tech Career Discovery Day. We invited local secondary schools to join us for a day at our offices to learn all about the different roles available in the tech industry, and how they aren’t all about coding. Throughout the day, female team members from development, support, consulting and project management gave interactive sessions (including an escape room) to explore what skills are needed in tech.

We helped break down stereotypes, proving that tech workers aren’t all “social rejects” (one pupil's exact words at the beginning of the day, which thankfully they told us that they realised that wasn’t true by the end of the day). At the start of the day only seven of the girls would have considered a career in tech, by the end of the day this rose to 17 girls saying they would consider a career in tech, plus eight maybes.

So whilst we still have more work to do, we’ve already started to alter perceptions of the tech industry after just one day. We are planning to run more Career Discovery Days and are in the process of planning our next Girls in Tech Career Discovery Day in February 2024.

So if you know a school who would like to get involved in our future, (free) events please tell them to get in touch with us, we welcome any input from schools on what they would like to see us cover as well.

Work Experience Placements at Tecman

We were all shocked at Tecman when we discovered that it wasn’t all that common for schools to encourage all their pupils to go on work experience placements for one or two weeks of the year. We feel work experience is a vital part of discovering where you want your career to go, or even confirming where you don’t want your career to go. It’s an opportunity to see how real businesses function and what goes on behind the scenes.

We’ve welcomed several secondary school pupils into Tecman to see what we all get up to across multiple departments, from development to marketing and consulting to admin. We’ve offered up to week-long placements within our teams for local teens to get their vital work experience in. Whilst it might not be as much of a focus at school anymore, we’re keen to bring in those pupils who want that all-important work experience. If your child is interested in joining us for a week of work experience, please get in touch.

Our recruitment efforts, both short-term and long-term, are certainly keeping us busy. But without a strong and happy team behind us, we wouldn’t be able to deliver the high-quality work we do for our customers.

With this tech industry skills gap we’re facing it’s more important than ever to be investing long-term in people, we not only need to find great people now but we need to inspire the future to ensure we can continue to deliver for our customers many years from now.

If you'd like to find out more about careers at Tecman, head to our work for us page.