DataKirk’s second annual Scottish Black Talent Summit provided an engaging, enlightening, and critical event fostering community, empowerment, and opportunity for the black talent pool in Scotland. 

DataKirk was able to showcase and discuss some of the most pertinent issues affecting the Scottish tech ecosystem and the black talent pool, highlighting where intersections and progress is needed and can be made. 

The summit featured two jam-packed days filled with mentorship and hiring opportunities, as well as panel discussions about hiring, leveraging black talent, barriers to entry, and opportunities for prospective staff and employers. 

As part of the day, Neil Gray MSP, minister for the wellbeing economy, announced that DataKirk is a recipient of two Scottish government initiatives set to support startups and foster entrepreneurship. 

DataKirk is one of 42 recipients that will share £1.6m through the Ecosystem fund, which is awarded to organisations that support Scottish entrepreneurs from disadvantaged and unrepresented groups

The company will also receive a grant from the Prestart Pathways Fund, set up to support more people from minority and underrepresented backgrounds to begin their entry onto the entrepreneurship pipeline. 

The summit itself offered a strong sense of community and mentorship – audience participation was encouraged, self-affirmation was abundant, and every individual with experience had a word of advice to share with younger audience members. 

DataKirk applauded three of its own cohort who benefited from some of its esteemed programmes, showcasing how it enabled two young people in Scotland to pursue technology education and internships, and provided much needed support for an immigrant to enter the UK workforce. 

Soleye Sotannde, a chairman on the board of trustees at DataKirk, said: “Talent knows no boundary; there is an abundance of untapped potentials and it is our duty to honour these potentials.”

A common theme throughout the day was the importance of transferable skills – many people who benefitted from Datakirk’s programmes and support were immigrants who had left their education and careers behind for life in Scotland, but not knowing where to begin. 

“My most frustrating thing with international students, when you reach the UK, is you bring the experience from abroad, do not delete your past because you’re having a present – all those skills are transferable,” Martina Chukwuma-Ezike, of the University of Aberdeen, said. “Do not delete your history just because you are starting your future.”

Coming to this country, Petra Adesuwa Ekhator of Thames Water said, is an education in itself. 

Inclusivity at the event was also paramount, so much so that parents brought their babies so they could attend the event. This was applauded by Abel Aboh, the first speaker at the second day of the event, who noted the importance of this ambition. 

“Why is it inspiring to have a mother with a baby on her back?” he asked, referring to a delegate he connected with on the summit’s first day. 

“The reason for that is because they really want to get the opportunities, they really want to contribute to Scottish economy, they really want to contribute to the communities as well.

“And I’ll always say: the black community is a community of agile people, highly-skilled people, and they are mobile as well,” he said.

But offering a safe space for parents to network with children in tow, for people to have honest and open discussions around racism, inequality, and immigration woes, was inspiring in its own right, and created a critical atmosphere for people to feel welcomed, important, listened to, and appreciated. 

The summit ranged from giving advice to students about applying for jobs – and applying themselves – navigating immigration woes, to offering insider advice and CV mentorship that many people beginning their UK tech journey may not know and who do not see themselves already represented in the tech sphere.

In a way, this showcased just how diverse the black talent pool currently is, and how it too often remains untapped, overlooked, and misunderstood. 

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• Are STEM Returners the Answer to the Skills and Diversity Gap?
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• DataKirk Partners with TechScaler for 2nd Scottish Black Talent Summit

But this goes beyond just black talent.

“There’s absolutely a lack of awareness of blackness, if I can use that word, and sometimes employers find it difficult to relate to you if you are black,” Iyke Ikegwuonu, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow, said during the last panel session, speaking on the misunderstanding of the overarching misunderstanding of black talent. 

“And that is, perhaps, systemic in itself, but is not recognised by the system,” he said. 

And this statement truly shows how important DataKirk’s work has been – they do not shy away from tackling difficult conversations, nor do they put marginalised races into a singular monolith.

“We are socialised and culturally different as well, and so it’s not a monolith of blackness,” Dr Charmaine Blaize, consultant and health data expert at NHS Scotland said. 

Employers need to make the effort to understand the black community in Scotland, not just in what they can offer and do for the company – which is demonstrably a lot – but as a vibrant community in itself. 

Kweku Bram-Larbi, a digital design lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, is calling for employers to adopt a “cultural education: understand the people you’re going to employ, understand the people you’re going to work with. It’s about understanding dynamics and culture.”

A simple way to do this introduced in another panel session is via reverse mentoring: “Let the black guy in your organisation mentor the senior leader,” Jude Osamor, founder of CyBlack said. “If you haven’t walked that road, it’s difficult to have the solution.”

Overall, the summit was incredibly people centric – the focus was not on grand statistics showing how businesses will benefit from diversity, how vital inclusion is for retaining talent, or how harnessing the black talent pool will help with the tech skills shortage. This was mentioned, but the focus of the event was fostering, growing and empowering a flourishing community in Scotland with a lot to offer, one that is deeply aware of their potential and value. 

“I am student of history,” Abel Aboh said, “and it is clear that it’s us people that makes this country what it is: it’s not the weather, it’s not the accent, it’s not the landscape. It is people.”