Thistle Labs Ltd

Yesterday was our first in-person #GreenTech Futures session at CodeBase Edinburgh. It was an excellent day, learning a lot about what's already happening in the green space, tech or otherwise. We started (after I accidentally ended up in the wrong room 😬 ) with a fantastic panel session with Fran van Dijk, Mhairi Cochrane and Lauren Ridgley. They talked about current initiatives to get to net zero, the ambitious 2030 Net Zero target that Edinburgh Council have set and how businesses are working to achieve that goal. The panel's (tempered) optimism about how we can mitigate, adapt and reduce the effects of climate change were reassuring. Hope is not lost, and the smaller changes do add up to real impacts. Next up, after a delicious lunch from Tasty Buns (literally my favourite cake shop ever! 🍰 ), we had Michael Groves founder of Topolytics talking about his entrepreneurial journey and the problem that Topolytics is trying to solve. Key takeaways for me - Even as a new company just starting out, there are meaningful steps we can take to be more climate friendly and there is free tooling out there to help track our carbon emissions. As someone on a green tech program, this feels like the least I can do #SmallSteps. I'm coming out of these sessions more optimistic that real change will happen and more keen to get involved where I can have the best impact.

I'm still looking for a few more volunteers to take part in a pilot program for a coaching and wellbeing app that helps you take charge of your work life, flex your thinking and broaden your horizons. I'm ideally looking for people 3-5 years into their current career (can be career changers). It does not matter what that career is. The time commitment is small - all we ask is you give the app a fair chance, participate in two 15 min chats with myself and fill in 3 short surveys. The pilot program will last 3 months starting from Jan. To participate you can fill out this short survey and leave your email address at the end: https://lnkd.in/guzzJ4kf

Final skills roundtable is running tomorrow in partnership with Direct Tech Training Scotland Ltd. We're still looking for employers in the Scottish Tech Ecosystem to come along, share their experiences and discuss what they want to see in the skills training space going forward. This is your chance to shape the future of tech skills training in Scotland, so don't miss the opportunity to have your say. Shares and reposts for reach appreciated. Sign up here: https://bit.ly/dtt-dsg #hiring #training #softwaredevelopment #softwareengineering #techskills #techcommunity #scotland #futureskills #data #dataskills #techtraining

I am looking for people 3-5 years into their current career to complete a short survey about career challenges for a company I’m working with. The aim is to getter a better understanding of the challenges faced by early-mid career employees in any industry so we can develop tools to support. The survey is anonymous although you can choose to enter your email in the last step if you want to be considered for a pilot test of an app the company is developing. All data collected will be restricted to the research team and individual results will not be shared (only aggregated results). https://lnkd.in/e5m3XDDZ

There are still a few places left for today's roundtable on diversity and inclusion in tech training. I'm running these roundtables in partnership with Direct Tech Training Scotland Ltd to understand what employers need from a Tech Skills Academy. Come along to help shape the future of tech skills training in Scotland. Sign up here: https://bit.ly/dtts-di

I'm delighted to share that we have two new dates for our employer roundtables series: 30th November: Diversity and Inclusion in Digital Skills Training 5th December: Digital Skills Gap Both sessions are 11am - 12pm and you can sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eyzHtn_Z Direct Tech Training Scotland Ltd

Friday was the first employer skills roundtable that I ran with Direct Tech Training Scotland Ltd, so I thought I'd share a few insights from the session. We had representatives from 6 employers join us who were kind enough to share their own experiences and needs so we could learn from each other. My top 3 take-aways were: 💡 There is still a real need in the Scottish Tech Ecosystem for a tech skills academy 💡 For Start-ups and SMEs on-going support beyond the bootcamp would help them to feel more confident to hire bootcamp students 💡 There is a really need to up-skill in-career software engineers to accelerate the move from junior to mid level and mid to senior. I'd be interested to hear if this resonates with the rest of my network? And if you'd like to join in the discussions yourself, we still have 3 roundtables running in November - sign-up links here: https://lnkd.in/eyzHtn_Z