The UK government is trying bolster attendance for its tech skills bootcamps aimed at GenZ with a new marketing campaign, promising young workers the chance to double their salary expectations.

Research published by Barclays Eagle Labs and Beauhurst, and funded by DSIT’s Digital Growth Grant, shows that demand for technology talent surged in 2022 after a slump through the pandemic.

“The new Eagle Labs report outlines what we have known for some time, that the technology sector continues to grow, with highly paid opportunities available,” Amanda Allan, director of Barclays Eagle Labs said.

“Vacancies with such high median salaries shows there is clear potential for the tech sector to improve prospects for people right across the UK.”

In Scotland, one in ten job openings are in the tech sector.

While tech job adverts decreased through the last year in the UK, demand for junior and entry-level roles persisted as technology companies struggled to recruit the early career talent they needed to match their growth ambitions.

Scale-up companies who have already demonstrated high potential and are in their ‘venture-stage’ dominated this demand, with the high-growth group recruiting almost one third (31.3%) of all digital jobs.

After establishing boosting scale-up growth and tackling the skills gap as two of DSIT’s three priorities for the year ahead, Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan today said: “The appetite and potential British scale-ups have for growth is immense, we can no longer allow digital skills shortages to limit their ambition.

“Whether your personal ambition is to secure a comfy pay packet, land a creative role, solve the world’s most pressing challenges, or all three – the Skills Bootcamps we are promoting today can help achieve your own career goals while being part of our superpower sector.”

Each bootcamp will see people take part in courses that last up to 16 weeks and will prepare them for high-tech careers, with each guaranteed an interview on completion.

No technical knowledge or educational qualifications are required to secure a place.

Digital skills is one of several areas where £550m of funding is aiming to upskill 64000 people through bootcamps by 2024.

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Launched by DSIT, the campaign is focussed on boosting five priority skills to plug gaps in British tech talent – covering cloud computing, software development, data and analytics, cybersecurity, and web development.

The courses are available part-time and full-time across the country, with many providers offering flexibilities to make sure that more people can take advantage.

The campaign has been supported by the Digital Skills Council, a group of major technology companies including Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS), as well as skills-focused organisations like Future Dot Now and more.

“Digital Skills are vital throughout the economy and existing successful programs such as bootcamps play an important role in providing relevant and focused up-skilling and a proven path into high value enjoyable jobs,” Phil Smith, co-chair of the Digital Skills Council and chairman of IQE, said.