BJSS Birmingham: Growing skills and delivering tech excellence in the West Midlands
Research by TechWM suggests that the tech sector in the West Midlands is generating £15bn to the wider regional economy and job market, and is in fact the largest UK tech sector outside of London with over 144,000 people working in tech roles across 2,400 businesses.
Technology and software engineering consultancy BJSS has one of its 26 global offices located in the heart of Birmingham. The West Midlands based office has grown from over a dozen tech specialists to an office of over 100 skilled professionals over the last five years, providing jobs to the tech enthusiasts of the West Midlands and delivering several projects regionally and beyond, across the energy, public sector and gaming industries.
Giving back to the local tech community is also a key activity in the BJSS Birmingham office with regular community engagement enabling further strengthening of the tech sector across the region. The Birmingham office hosts and supports a wide range of tech-focused meetups in collaboration with group organisers on weeknights.
These meetups have included:
: A monthly Go programming meet for those wishing to expand their network, connect with fellow Golang professionals and learn about the latest tools, best practices, and innovations in the industry.
Birmingham .NET/Maui User Group
: A monthly meet on weeknights for developers interested in or involved with .Net, C#, Azure, MAUI or Xamarin Mobile Development.
: A monthly meet on weekday mornings for casual coffee and conversation to discuss dev-ops, human-ops, leadership, automation, metrics, infrastructure as code, and all the other things that make development fascinating.
: Committed agile professionals come together monthly on weeknights to share best practice and encourage the adoption of agile – including agile games nights.
: A monthly meetup on weeknights aimed at challenging STEM stereotypes, gender equality as well as supporting, empowering and promoting women in the tech industry.
Closing the tech talent gap is often a discussion point across the industry, coming together through meetups not only fosters a strong sense of community, but it helps people at all levels of their careers connect with like-minded professionals, developers, engineers, delivery leads, and tech enthusiasts to share knowledge, discuss trends, and grow their tech talent.
In addition to meetups, the BJSS Birmingham team plays an active role in regional technology activity by attending and speaking at local conferences and events to share knowledge, discuss emerging trends, and build connections with other industry peers and leaders.
By engaging with these events, BJSS among many other companies help raise the profile of the West Midlands technology sector, attracting new talent and investment to the area, while sharing valuable experience and insights to build up the existing local talent.
One of the final highlights and success stories out of BJSS Birmingham comes through the School of Code, a coding bootcamp that provides alternative routes into tech careers.
BJSS employs a number of School of Code graduates, and in turn several members of the Birmingham office mentor School of Code attendees, helping to diversify the talent pipeline for people of all backgrounds, skillsets and knowledge to find a place in the technology sector.
It’s essential to BJSS and all regional offices, such as the Birmingham office, to continue building bridges across business, education, and community with the initiatives and activities featured.
Through the combination of local talent, knowledge sharing through meetups, events and mentoring, the tech sector in the West Midlands can continually thrive through and remain a regional hub of innovation in the years to come.
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