Edinburgh-based Cortex Worldwide, a digital technology company with clients including Microsoft Education, has attributed an important part of its success to date to its apprenticeship initiative.

Speaking during Scottish Apprenticeship Week, founder and CEO Peter Proud said: “Starting an apprenticeship scheme is one of the best things we did after starting the company.”

Cortex has seven apprentices in its overall headcount of 35. The company’s apprenticeship programme aims to blend academic and vocational training, enabling the company to recruit, train, up-skill and retain employees within the digital technologies industry. The company is a signatory to both the Microsoft Partner Pledge and Tech Talent Charter, which together promote digital skills, apprenticeships and diversity.

Proud added: “Our apprentices have become integral to everything we do at Cortex, that’s how important they are to our business. We want to create the best possible work environment for all of our people and that has been built into our DNA from day one. Not only are we building a market-leading product, we’re also building the right values and culture and that’s equally important to us.”

Cortex won SME Apprentice Employer of the Year at the 2018 Scottish Apprenticeship Awards and, in 2020, is the only Scottish company to have made the shortlist for the National Technology Awards, in which Cortex is nominated in the Tech Company of the Year, Cloud Product of the Year and Best Tech Place to Work categories.

Cortex marked its fifth year in business in 2019 by recording double-digit revenue growth and upping headcount to 35 at its headquarters in Edinburgh. The firm counts a number of large UK and international enterprise clients among its customer base and is set to announce a series of new business wins, including one of the UK’s leading banks, and high-profile board appointments during the first half of 2020.

Founded in 2014, Cortex Worldwide has developed a cloud-based web management content (WCM) platform that enables clients to create, deploy, analyse and optimise their digital estates. Cortex, which secured a management buyout from WPP in 2017, is led by Proud, formerly a senior executive at Accenture and Microsoft, and the company’s board includes John Waddell, former CEO of Scottish angel investment group Archangels.

Recommended

• Mental Health in the Technology Sector: Your Questions Answered
• BTP Teams with Israeli Stock Exchange on Securities Lending Platform
• Cybersecurity Professionals Help Scottish Teachers Deliver Cyber Lessons

Scottish Apprenticeship Week is taking place from the 2nd of March until the 6th of March. This year’s campaign theme is ‘Talent Without Limits’ and intends to celebrate the diversity that makes work-based learning good for individuals, employers and the economy.

A spokesperson for Scottish Apprenticeship Week said: “Scottish Apprenticeships are for everyone, no matter their background and for every business, no matter its size or sector. We want everyone to know there is no limit to where an apprenticeship can take you, your child or businesses. Old-fashioned ideas about apprenticeships no longer apply.”