Bright Network Technology Academy

Bright Network is going places 🚀 We kicked off Q3 in style on Wednesday morning, bringing the whole of Bright Network together, across our London, Edinburgh, Berlin and remote teams, to align on our ambitious goals for the months ahead. It was an energising session where we mapped out the next steps in our journey towards continued growth and innovation. Highlights from the day include: 🌟 A deep dive into our latest tech developments, focused on advancing our matching capabilities to better support the careers of our ambitious Bright Network members and help our partners connect with the best and brightest talent 🌟 Getting everyone onboard and excited about our next steps as a business as we prioritise growth and explore new options to develop and deliver even better solutions for all our member and employer partners 🌟 Our quarterly Gamechanger Award announcement - congratulations Daria Vormfenne for her phenomenal work on the German team, bringing her positive outlook to her role which spans clients, marketing, operations and our first ever DE event - so well-deserved! A huge thanks to our fantastic People team for making this hybrid session such a success. We’re excited for what we can achieve together this quarter! 💥 #StrategyDay #PeopleAndCulture #Innovation

Today’s the day – Illuminate Conference 2024 is here and off to a fantastic start 🚀 200+ early talent professionals have joined us this morning in London for our annual Illuminate Conference, which brings our community together to discuss the most important topics facing the sector today. This year’s theme - Fix the Disconnect: Enabling Gen Z success through recruitment strategy - will see us delving into topics including GenAI, intersectionality, neurodiversity, workplace expectations, mental health and the STEM talent gap. As well as a range of expert voices from the sector leading our sessions, we're being joined by Bright Network members who will be sharing their sentiments and insights. Why? Because in order to fix the disconnect, we need to truly understand the Gen Z perspective and create a workforce where they can thrive. It's a jam packed agenda which will allow our community to walk away with deeper understanding, shared knowledge and practical takeaways to support this recruitment season and many more to come. Thanks to everyone who’s here today – let’s get started! #IC2024 #Illuminate2024 #EarlyCareers #DEIB

Bright Network FESTIVAL 2024 is HERE. 4000+ members. 100+ leading employers. Countless new connections. 🚀🚀🚀 FESTIVAL is always a special day in the calendar at Bright Network, and this year will be no different. Hosted in the QEII Centre we've got skills sessions, panel talks, and networking to connect the next generation with their future employees across the day. To all our employers and members joining us today, we can't wait to see you there. #GenerationBright #BNFESTIVAL2024 #CareerReadyWithBrightNetwork

Resilience - the ability to recover from difficulties or adjust easily to misfortune - is a powerful skill to have mastered, especially when it comes to your career. Time and time again, our employer partners tell us that workplace resilience is the number one skill they’re looking for in emerging talent. And yet, according to our research, our members often see it as less important than aspects like confidence, a 2:1 or above in a degree and existing industry experience. At Bright Network Technology Academy, we’re committed to supporting students and graduates to succeed in their careers. We want to help graduate employers and students align on resilience through education, upskilling and inspiration. In line with this, we’re excited to be sharing our support of the upcoming Ocean Survivoar Challenge 2025, a solo and unsupported mission, being taken on by Annasley Park, to row across the Atlantic Ocean. We’re one of a few partners supporting Annasley, who, despite an impressive athletic background, is pushing herself completely out of her comfort zone in a bid to inspire and educate a generational shift in resilience. Annasley will be crossing the Atlantic in 2025 with a world record-breaking target of 40 days and £300,000 raised for charities close to her heart. Keep an eye out for Annasley who will be joining us at a variety of upcoming events, including Friday’s FESTIVAL, to meet our members and share her inspiring message of resilience. Follow her journey using the link in comments ⬇ #OceanSurvivoar #Resilience #EarlyCareers

It’s an exciting week for us at London HQ as we build up to Bright Network FESTIVAL 2024 on Friday. Each year, Bright Network FESTIVAL sees thousands of students and recent graduates descend on Westminster for a full day of networking, skill sessions, panels and keynotes. We can’t wait to welcome over 4,000 of our diverse and driven members to meet with 100 of our employer partners throughout the day. If you’re attending on Friday, here are our three top tips for making the most out of the day: 🧡 Prepare to network - this is your chance to create lasting connections with your potential future employers, so brush up on your skills before the day to really stand out 🧡 Do your research - check out which firms are attending and prep some well thought out questions to ask your favourites on the day 🧡 Be yourself - the best way to enjoy FESTIVAL is to bring your authentic self - nerves are normal - so focus on enjoying the experience and the chance to meet so many new people. We know you’ll have an amazing day! Huge shout out to our premier sponsors for this year: BP, Clyde & Co, EY, Lloyds Banking Group, P&G and PwC 🙌 To all of our employer partners who will be at FESTIVAL on Friday, what are your top tips for students attending? Pop them in the comments below ⬇ #BNFESTIVAL2024 #Networking #EarlyCareers #CareersFair #GraduateJobs

We’re just one month away from the Bright Network Illuminate Conference 2024, where we’ll bring together leading voices in the early careers community to spark conversations and share solutions to the challenges we’re all facing. Now’s the time to select your breakout sessions – there’s limited spaces for each session and it’s first-come, first-served. Delivered by industry experts, our breakout sessions include: 🧠 The mental health crisis in 2024 and why it matters for your organisation  🤖 Making your employer brand attractive to the AI-enabled generation  💭 Meeting in the middle: Are your expectations of Gen Z good for business?  📚 The Gen Z skillset and how to make the most of it  🌟 Practical steps to towards neuro-inclusion in your organisation  👩🔬 The STEM talent gap: Early engagement to support your STEM hiring On top of these fantastic breakouts, we’ll be hosting a panel featuring some of our members focusing on intersectionality and an unmissable keynote session on the future of building a diverse and inclusive workforce. Select your sessions (and sign up if you haven't already) by clicking the link in the comments. We’re excited to see you there and can’t wait for the inspiring discussions and insights this day will bring. Stay tuned for exciting speaker announcements later this month. Please note: This event is designed for professionals working in the early careers space, not for students. #IC2024 #Illuminate #EarlyCareers #DiversityAndInclusion

Our mission at Technology Academy is simple: to make the tech sector an open and accessible place for bright minds from all backgrounds. Two weeks into our 2024 Couch to Coder programme, we’re reflecting on why initiatives like this are so important. Couch to Coder, our summer coding camp, takes bright, tech-curious talent from beginner to confident coder in just five weeks. This completely free initiative is designed to help students and graduates without a computer science background to discover the world of tech, build essential foundational skills and ignite further curiosity about a career in tech. The sector has long faced a shortage of diverse talent, a problem rooted in systemic issues including the narrow university pipeline and a widespread perception of tech as inaccessible. Initiatives like this are crucial for shifting the narrative and widening access. And, the good news is there’s no shortage of tech-curious minds! This year, we had nearly 6,000 students and recent graduates sign up to Couch to Coder – a whopping increase of 50% on last year. We’re so excited to see this strong appetite for tech from diverse, bright talent and we’re ready to nurture and support them to reach their potential. To find out more about this incredible new initiative - read our latest article. Link in comments. #TechSkills #Coding #CouchToCoder

Despite numerous initiatives aimed at bridging the gender gap in tech, diversity challenges persist in the sector – in our latest article (link in comments) we explore what needs to happen to break down key barriers for women in tech. Why? Because in an industry that thrives on innovation, which flourishes best in diverse environments, bridging this gap becomes ever more business critical. At Bright Network Technology Academy, we’re committed to breaking down barriers and opening doors for young female tech talent and in this article, we’re exploring some of the biggest barriers facing women in depth and provide strategies to drive change in your business today. Read the article now – link in the comments ⬇

We’re thrilled to be kicking off Couch to Coder 2024 today – where we’ll be introducing the next wave of tech talent to the craft of code! Over 5,500 tech-curious students and graduates have signed up and we couldn’t be more pleased with the growth of the programme, up an incredible 50% from our pilot last year - showcasing the incredible appetite for tech careers coming from emerging talent. To match this appetite, participants can expect a jam-packed few weeks consisting of: 🚀 Weekly sessions created by an expert Bright Network tech trainer and practical tasks to complete 🚀 An exclusive Insights Week in September, where leading technologists from our sponsors Amazon and HSBC will be sharing advice and guidance on how to launch a career in tech 🚀 A chance to gain valuable new skills, learn the possibilities of a career in tech and walk away with your very own website We can’t wait to see what our members achieve on the programme – best of luck! #WorkforceOfTomorrow #Training #DiversityAndInclusion 

At this time every summer, we take two full days out of the working week to head somewhere new and connect as a team. This year, we enjoyed our two-day team offsite in Manchester. We spent the time reflecting on the success we’ve had as a business, taking time to think about our strategy and why we do what we do, as well as hearing from various inspiring speakers to help us constantly improve as a team and get the very most out of the work we do. We were also joined by four of our brilliant members Abel Ighavbota, Lily Gregory, Mohamed Ali and Danielle K. who gave us great insights on their career journeys as well as how we can do more to support students like them. Our Founder and CEO James Uffindell announced our Q1 Gamechanger award to Shanice Hicks-Coffey for her incredible work bringing six new team members into the business recently – congratulations Shanice! 🚀 On top of all this, there was time to relax and bond together as a team with a guided tour of Manchester from Sam Abdollahian, an incredible night of food drinks and Bandeoke, followed by a therapeutic and creative time making plant pots at Clay Life 🤘🎤🌵 The biggest thanks to our wonderful Flo Odumosu, Edwina Ko, Vivian Wadler and Ally Monk 🏳️🌈 for their efforts in making this our best offsite ever! We’re already looking forward to the next one... #TeamOffsite #Collaboration #Social