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Designing Work Experience for the Tech Jobs that Don’t Exist Yet
The Government’s Work Experience Guarantee will entitle every learner to ten days of meaningful workplace experiences during their school years. For employers, this is a rare chance to influence the next decade of skills development.
Rising demand, shrinking pipeline
Labour market signals are shifting fast. Skills England’s recent assessment of priority skills to 2030 suggests that programmers and software development professionals alone will account for around 87,000 of the additional demand in priority occupations by the end of the decade. Its 2025 analysis also highlights that tech‑driven roles now make up the highest share of all high‑demand occupations, covering over 1.1 million jobs. The UK is structurally short of the skills it needs, and AI‑enabled work is reshaping capability requirements even faster.
Yet this sits in stark contrast to the gloomy statistics on young people not in education, employment of training (NEET) we have seen in recent years. In July to September 2025, an estimated 946,000 young people aged 16 to 24 were not in education, employment or training. These are the potential future tech professionals of tomorrow who are missing out on formative experiences at exactly the moment digital capability is becoming foundational across the economy. When so many young people are disconnected from the world of work, building the future tech workforce becomes slower, more expensive and more uncertain.
Access gaps in a digital capital
This challenge is particularly visible in Central London, where digital work cuts across every sector. Young people live in proximity to public institutions, creative studios, start‑ups and global financial firms. But proximity is not the same as access. Even in London, opportunities are unevenly distributed, and the young people who stand to gain the most from early exposure, those without professional networks, girls considering STEM pathways, pupils with SEND, young carers and care‑experienced young people, are often the least likely to benefit.
Designing modern work experience
The Central London Careers Hub and its Digital & Technology Industry Advisory Group are working to close that gap by helping employers design Modern Work Experience that reflects the reality of contemporary digital work. This means moving beyond observational shadowing and creating placements. We are encouraging employers to introduce students to multiple roles within a single placement so that they see how product, UX, data, engineering, cyber and customer success functions come together to deliver work. We are also helping employers design experiences built around micro‑projects that result in something tangible: a small data insight, a process improvement or a prototype journey, so that students leave having contributed rather than simply watched.
A critical feature of these experiences is helping young people understand AI‑enabled work. Employers consistently tell us they need stronger capabilities in problem framing, data literacy, collaboration and ethical reasoning. Designing tasks that make these demands visible helps students understand the real nature of modern jobs and builds confidence in their ability to participate in them. Each placement should end with a short, structured reflection that allows students to name the skills they practised and identify concrete next steps. This turns a single encounter into a foundation for future choices.
Teacher encounters also deserve far greater prominence in the tech sector. When teachers understand modern digital roles, apprenticeships and data pathways, they translate that insight into hundreds of better‑informed conversations every year. The Careers & Enterprise Company’s (CEC’s) evaluation of its teacher encounters programme shows employers are more likely to recruit young people afterwards and expect improved diversity in their applicant pool.
This approach is embodied in Equalex, a framework that supports educators and employers to treat work experience as a portfolio of structured activities rather than a one‑off event. It provides the shared learning objectives needed to build long‑term partnerships, with Employer Standards offering a clear route to improving quality over time.
Tech is shaping the future of the workplace, now is the time to shape the future workforce.
About the campaign
techUK’s TechTogether campaign, taking place throughout March, is a collection of activities highlighting the UK’s technology sector pursuit to shape a more equitable future. In 2026 we are exploring: Inclusive AI, investing in diverse founders and entrepreneurs, the power of allyship and mentorship, and empowering young people.
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Authors
Nahdia Khan
Nahdia Khan is an organisational development leader and strategist with 20 years of experience across professional services, government and SaaS. She chairs the Digital & Technology Industry Advisory Group for Central London Careers Hub, where she works with employers and educators to design meaningful, scalable work experiences that connect young people to the realities of modern tech roles.
Connor Natella
Connor Natella is the Operational Hub Lead - Industry & Policy at the Central London Careers Hub, working at the intersection of education, skills and labour market policy. He oversees employer partnerships and workforce-facing initiatives designed to connect young people to meaningful career opportunities.
